Sherlock- Not The First Avenger (More of a Gatecrasher)
by Sherlockreader
Summary: Sherlock and John (mostly Sherlock) sneek into SHEILD HQ and get all caught up in the fray. (It's finished! sequel now up!)
1. Chapter 1

"Ah that's interesting."

"Sherlock! We're really not meant to be here, their evacuating everyone!" John barks in a whisper as Sherlock strides through the corridors like he owns them.

"Relax John, think how much we can learn from SHEILD, probably even more now most of them have left" Sherlock grins mischievously. He really is in his element in with all this technology to investigate. "Ah ha! What's through here?"

John pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, he watches as Sherlock slips sneakily through a door marked DO NOT ENTER- RESTRICTED ACCESS. He follows Sherlock into a staggeringly large room, it's full of computers and technology, two large sets of wires and pipes create a runway through the centre of the room, at one end hefty lot of technology encloses a glowing blue cube that's emitting bright blue sparks of energy. At the other, a platform surrounded by panels takes up the majority of the space.

Sherlock silently beckons John over to him where he stands next to a vacant – but complicated looking – computer.

"Fascinating" Sherlock breaths as his eyes dart at an alarming speed to examine the information on the monitor.

"What is it?" John whispers from next to him, flabbergasted that no one has noticed them yet.

"It's an energy source John, like nothing I've ever seen before" Sherlock began typing at the computer bringing up information.

"The Tesseract," John reads "Found by Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. the Red Skull in 1942 (original origins unknown.), contained and under examination by Doctor Selvic at SHEILD HQ. Sherlock this is deep stuff, we really shouldn't be here."

Sherlock doesn't answer but simply rolls his eyes and continues looking through the files.

At that moment an important looking man in a long leather coat strides into the room, John and Sherlock exchange a glance as they both notice the eye patch.

"Talk to me Doctor" He says calmly, but with a sense of authoritative urgency.

"Director" The man called Doctor Selvig replies.

"Anything we know for certain?"

"The Tesseact is misbehaving."

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"It's not funny at all, the Tesseract is not only active she's…behaving.

"I assume you pulled the plug?

"She's an energy source! We turn off the power she turns it back on.

"If she reaches peak level…"

They stride up to the main computer, Fury eye's the Tesseract in distrust

"Are you prepared for this doctor? Harnessing energy from space?"

"We don't have the harness; my calculations are far from complete. She's throwing off interference, radiation nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."

"That can be harmful."

John can tell Sherlock is listening intently while he reads through more data files on the computer.

"Where is agent Barton?

"The Hawke? In his nest as usual." He gestures up to the small maintenance area over 50ft above the ground.

Agent Barton slides down the rope from his nest to join Director Fury on the ground.

"I gave you this detail so you could keep a closer eye on things."

"I see better from a distance."

"See anything that might have set this thing off?"

"He won't have. There has been no interference; it's nothing at this end Director." Sherlock states as he walks from behind the computer towards Fury.

"Sherlock!" hisses after his flatmate.

"At this end?" Fury askes, turning to face Sherlock in surprise.

"From what I've just read, the Tesseract is a doorway to another part of space. Doors can be opened from both sides; someone or something is trying to get through to our end. Simple really."

"Simple? Who the hell are you?" Barton askes disbelievingly.

"Sherlock Holmes, this is Doctor John Watson." John waves awkwardly.

Suddenly a wave of pure energy nearly knocks them off their feet as a portal opens up on top of the platform in a flurry of blindly bright blue light.

"And you may want to look behind you; I do believe a Norse God just came through a space portal into your lab."

* * *

Hey I keep watching Avengers and thinking it would be awesome for Sherlock to be there so here is this, just a bit of fun but if you like it I'll be happy to keep going. My writing skills are far from strong so if you see anything wrong of is it's just generally crap them send me a review/message telling me so I can get better THANKS: D


	2. Chapter 2- Where Sherlock annoys Loki

Everyone turned to see the new arrival to their party, kneeling on the platform, still bathed in a mist of blue energy was a man in green and black leather, in his left hand he held a sceptre with an electric blue stone set into the top, an extreme dagger protruded into a sharp point at the end.

"Sir, please put down the spear." Fury called loudly.

Sherlock rolled his eyes "It's clearly a sceptre, look at him; he's practically screaming "I'm king of the world.""

The newcomer looked at Fury, Sherlock, then at his own sceptre.

He drew it back with supremacy and threw a huge bolt of electrical energy - narrowly missed Sherlock thanks to John's quick reactions. A volley of similar attacks shattered the computer systems killing soldiers and scientists alike, in a matter of seconds the life count in the room had halved; only leaving John, Sherlock, Fury, Barton and Doctor Selvig.

They had all been forced to the ground during the attack, the newcomer walked over to Barton as he was getting to his feet, grabbing him hand as Barton attempted a weak punch.

"You have heart." The man's voice was smooth and seemed to be British; he smiled slightly as he brought his sceptre point up to Barton's heart a blue energy moved up the sceptre and into Barton's chest.

John and Sherlock got up slowly from their place on the floor in time to see Barton's eyes turn completely black revealing his iris's to be a shocking blue. Barton relaxed his stance and holstered his gun.

"Interesting some kind of mind control, that could come in handy." Sherlock smiled.

"Not really the time for jokes Sherlock," John hissed keeping an eye on the murderer.

"Please don't, I still need that." The man had turned to face fury who had taken the Tesseract out of the machinery and into a case and was attempting to walk away unnoticed.

"To get your newly acquired army through to earth no doubt, predictable." Sherlock rolled his eyes at him.

"This doesn't have to get any messier," commented John "Let's just talk about this without any more violence." He put up a calming hand as the newcomers eyes shot daggers at Sherlock.

"Predictable? You know nothing little man." Said the man, ignoring John "I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki, brother of Thor?" Doctor Selvig said in awe as he got up from examining a colleague. Loki glared, like he hated the association.

"Loki and Thor? Like from the Norse myths?" Asked John in confusion.

"Quite, but this one looks a little too solid to be a Myth don't you think?" Sherlock looked over Loki with a quizzical glance. "Looking a bit peaky there Loki, Take a lot of power getting through that portal did it?"

"I have power you couldn't dream of." Loki sneered.

"I don't dream I deduce, it's clear you here for revenge, you've been on earth before with your brother perhaps? Sibling rivalry, I know all about that. You believe your better in every way to everyone here don't you? Friends in high places. You hold that sceptre like it belongs to you but you look at it like it was a powerful gift and you haven't gotten used to its power yet. From the files I've read, your brother Thor isn't even on this planet, yet you still bother to travel all this way just for the Tesseract, if you haven't even gotten used to your sceptre yet, you clearly don't have the power to wield the Tesseract. You're just the middle man, killing two birds with one stone, revenge on earth while you get the job done for your boss. Promise you power? Said he would make you a king?" Sherlock tilted his head to one side "Poor little Loki, Mr Real power is just a bagman."

If looks could kill.

Loki stalked towards Sherlock and came face to face, so close Sherlock could see the power in his eyes as well as the fear and anger. The next thing he knew Loki's sceptre was pressing against his chest, he shot a glance at John before everything when black.

* * *

Dun dun Duuuuuun shall I continue?

I don't own Sherlock or Avengers, I'm not that cool (But I do have a bow tie.).


	3. Chapter 3-Where John isn't happy

John mentally punched Sherlock in the face (while trying not to show his stress on his own) as he watched him deduce Loki. Insult a God with the pointy spear of doom in his hand? Only Sherlock.

When he finished, Loki looked like he was going to explode with anger, he walked over to them, face to face with Sherlock, anger faded from his face and was replaced by a dangerous smirk.

As though he knew what would happen next Sherlock gently pushed John back while keeping eye contact with Loki. Loki raised his sceptre and placed the tip over Sherlock's heart, Sherlock shot john a wink before his eyes were swallowed by black, his sly smile vanished.

"No SHERLOCK!" John rushed forward but a hand grabbed him from behind, it was Barton.

"We have no quarrel with you people." Fury interjected while John struggled.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Loki answered simply as he moved his eyes from Sherlock.

"Do you intend to step on us?"

"I come with glad tidings, " he said as he walked over to the restrained John, "Of a world made free."

"free from what?" Fury asked sceptically.

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that…in your heart," he turned swiftly and placed the sceptre on Selvig's chest, "You will know peace."

"Yeah you say peace, I kinda think you mean the other thing."

At that moment Sherlock turned to face fury and looked up at the roof where a pool of lingering energy glistened.

"Director Fury is stalling, he means to bury you when the residual energy from the Tesseract loses all stability and brings the roof down on us all."

"He's right the portal is collapsing in on itself, we've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Selvig confirmed, his eyes glowing under Loki's command.

"Well then." Loki said as he looked meaningfully at Barton who hit John hard on the head sending him to the ground, then swiftly brought his gun up and shot fury squarely in the chest.

Sherlock, Barton and Selvig followed Loki swiftly out of the room, Sherlock picking up the Tesseract case by Fury's body as he went.

Without second look at John, Sherlock left.

John regained consciousness almost immediately, feeling dazed he got up and looked around the now empty room, a pang of fear crossed his heart as he realised Sherlock had gone with Loki.

The energy from the Tesseract that was contained in the roof was swirling around dangerously.

"Hill! Do you copy?" He heard a groan and followed the sound to find Fury had been shot and was on the ground, he rushed over in time to see him pull out a bullet from his vest. He barked orders into the radio and tried to get up, John helped by supporting a part of his weight.

Without needing to say a word to each other, they started a little haphazardly towards the door, John made to go the way he and Sherlock had come in but Fury pulled his arm and motioned to a set of stairs that lead up to the roof.

"Helicopter" He said between orders.

John nodded and followed.

They made it to the roof and into the helicopter just as the roof gave way beneath them.

Fury sat opposite John talking into his radio "They're in the tunnel; no one's been able to stop them, yet."

The helicopter banked left, turning towards a flat bed truck with orange lights on top, that has sped out of the end of the tunnel, just before the seal dropped.

"There, Loki's in the back, careful he wouldn't think twice about blowing us out of the sky." John said anxiously pointing towards the truck. The truck then turned onto a dirt track, Fury hung out of the open side and shot a few rounds at the car before Loki raised his sceptre.

"Look out!" Shouted John, but it was far too late a bolt of blue energy hit the tail of the helicopter before he had finished his sentence.

"Jump, now!" Shouted fury.

"But the pilots!" Fury pushed him out of the plane, he landed hard on the ground just as the helicopter's blades were shattered by impact, the whole thing smashed to the earth and caught on fire.

He looked up from his place on the ground to find fury already standing.

"The Tesseract is with a hostile force, I have men down. Hill?"

John staggered over to the crashed site and put his arm through the shattered window to check the non-existent pulses of the pilots. That pang he felt in his heart, reminded him so strongly of Afghanistan, he looked up at fury.

"As of right now. We are at war."

…


	4. Chapter 4 - Where Sherlock thinks

Everything was strange, colours changed from vibrant to dull and back again, he could feel himself walking and talking but without his permission. It was an extraordinary feeling, he had some very new information to go over in his mind palace later, but that didn't mean Sherlock had to like it.

Loki was probing him about SHELID information, to which his controlled mind was answering easily. His plan had back fired a little, Sherlock had assumed he'd be able to fight Loki's control, but it was proving harder than he originally thought.

The feeling was similar to that of being pushed and pulled continuously from side to side via his brain, he knew it would be easier to let go, to flow into Loki's control, but easy is boring.

Loki had stopped talking to him; he felt the pull wane slightly as Loki didn't need his mind as much as before. He could fight this.

"John."

"What?" Loki turned back and Sherlock felt the pull tighten around him again "Ahh the little man is clever and strong minded; I'd imagine that's mostly your arrogance fighting back? Calling your little pet, pathetic."

The pull tightened painfully for a moment then released, keeping Sherlock trapped in his own mind yet again. He kicked himself internally, why had he spoken out, drawn attention to himself? It was stupid. Stupid sentiment.

"Sir is he secure? " Barton asked "If he's able to fight your control…"

"…He can't, it was a momentary blip. He's strong but not strong enough."

* * *

"John"

John turned as he heard his name being called, there was no one there, he looked back to where fury was, and it had sounded like Sherlock, God that's the first sign…

"Doctor Watson." Fury called, breaking into John's thoughts. He beckoned him over to where a jeep was ready for them.

After an awkward moment John looked up from the floor to find Fury's eye staring at him.

"What now?" he asked, "I've seen too much, you'll either kill me or recruit me. Seeing as I'm only an army doctor-not a God or a hawk- I'm guessing you'll kill me, or at least wipe my memory?" John said calmly.

"Well Doctor, you and your friend did break into a HQ base that no one should know about…"fury looked away in thought, before turning his eye back to John "…But you did help save my life and I'd imagine you'll want to help get your friend back from Loki. We've lost a Doctor, so you may come in handy."

John nodded "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet doctor."

"I'd appreciate access to information about this Loki character, I like to know who I'm up against."

Fury looked at him before saying "I'll get you a pass as soon as we get on the carrier. We're getting our best people in; we'll start the trace for Loki."

Fury paused.

"I have to ask, is your friend a threat? What I mean by that is, has he added to Loki's arsenal enough to need to be dealt with if we catch him?"

"You mean, do you need to kill him on sight?" Fury said nothing.

"Sherlock has a brilliant mind, yeah he's a threat, but he hates being controlled –even being told to make a cup of tea- I think he's planning to fight Loki from the inside. Before Loki's sceptre touched him, he looked at me, he had a plan."

"And do his plans usually work out?"

"Well, yeah he's very stubborn that way."

"Let's hope he remains that way."

"I think it's a family tradition" John laughed half-heartedly, "Mycroft, should I call his brother do you think?"

"Hmm, that's Mycroft Holmes of the British government yes?"

"Yes, Sherlock always says he practically _is_ the British government."

"Yes, you can call him, tell him what's going on but be vague about the details for now."

"I understand Director," Said John getting out his mobile "Have you got a more secure line I could use, he could trace my mobile."

"You think he would? It's almost like you don't trust him doctor." Fury commented giving a slight smile, he pulled out a phone from a case to his right and handed it to John.

"Thanks."

Ring Ring… Ring…

"_John? What is going on? Sherlock isn't answering my calls, emails, or texts. Normally I wouldn't worry but since you used MY PASS to break into a top military base AGAIN I would quite like to know what is going on_." John heard Mycroft take a breath and clear his throat a little. Mycroft hated showing his emotions as much as Sherlock did, he could hear the stress, so John gave him a moment to compose himself.

"What do you know already, and then I'll fill in the gaps that I'm allowed to." John didn't want to just go right ahead and spurt out everything in case something important slipped out, knowing what Mycroft knew first may be to his advantage.

"_Hm_." Mycroft sounded unimpressed but didn't argue further.

"_I know that you and my brother somehow got hold of my pass, travelled to America, this I deduced from the email I got commenting on my unscheduled visit to the headquarters in question. I know that from the moment you and Sherlock came within 50 miles of the base, you were no longer traceable –ah- just like now it seems. Sherlock is not with you guessing by the stress in your voice, I can only pray –for America's sake- that he is safe and not causing trouble."_

"Well, he was alive the last time I saw him, which was about three hours ago now. Umm…I'm really not sure how to explain this." At that moment fury took the phone from John's hand.

"Mr Holmes, your brother has been possessed by a Norse God and is currently on the run with the most powerful energy source in the solar system."

John stared at him open mouthed "You said keep it vague!"

* * *

A/N -

Yay that was fun, of course I couldn't make it too easy for Sherlock, he's gotta have a little struggle at least. How are you finding the characters and their interactions, anything I should change?

But oh no! There is an empty text box just down there; I think it needs some reviews…

Review if convenient…If inconvenient review anyway. :P


	5. Chapter 5- Where Sherlock says piss off

Sherlock was right when he said the Tesseract was the most powerful thing he'd ever seen.

It showed him things even he could have never deduced, new worlds, strange beings,( something that looked oddly like an alien in a bow tie, but he chose to move over that image quickly) he was certain he even saw John at one point but that may have been his subconscious bleeding through, (he didn't miss him or anything…).

"What did it show you Sherlock?" asked Loki with a smirk.

"Everything."

"Having trouble keeping up with it all?"

"No."

"Good isn't it? Much better if you stop fighting it, you'll see more."

"Piss off."

"Ha. Even under mind control you're still arrogant. If I send Barton after your friend will you submit?" Loki's smirk grew as he felt the slight flicker in Sherlock's resolve.

"Probably not."

"Shame, I'm sure I'll find something to convince you."

Sherlock said nothing, well he would have done but Loki forced his control further into his head and stopped the snarky comment being said.

"Sherlock, I've got a little job for you. Go talk to Agent Barton, he's got a mission and you can help."

Sherlock internally sighed as his legs moved over to Barton who had just been assembling his bow.

"We've got to get this Iridium from Germany, Doc needs it for something."

"It's a stabilising agent. Stops the Tesserract's energy from collapsing in on itself like it did at SHEILD." Barton looked shocked for a second before shaking his head, and passing a set of maps to Sherlock.

"These are the blue prints you hacked from the database, Loki will get the eyeball we need and I'll cover you while you get the Iridium out of the vault. Familiarise yourself with the layout."

Sherlock handed the blueprints back.

"I said Familiarise yourself with the map."

"I have." Sherlock said as he walked away.

Sherlock walked over to where Doctor Selvig was working on a portal stabilising device, just simple thermonuclear astrophysics. He observed him working, adding in little comments when he was doing something wrong, until it was time to leave.

Stuttgart was nothing interesting; they arrived in just over an hour in a fast jet Barton had somehow gotten his hands on.

Barton shot most of the guards with his arrows and Sherlock shot the rest with his new handgun, (Mrs Hudson's walls knew how good a shot he was). He knew if John was to see any footage of this he would be sad that Sherlock had killed people, he wasn't too thrilled himself but he didn't have much choice in the matter. Loki had tightened his grip on Sherlock's mind, no room to move.

Barton nodded to him they climbed down the building towards the door to the vault, Sherlock got there first and immediately placed the tripod retinal receiver on top of the access panel, now just to wait for the Loki to get the eye.

At that moment a group of guards ran around the corner closest to them, he covered Barton with gun shots while he got to a better position on top of a bin and shot arrows at the men now hiding around the corner.

They finished them off just as an eye was projected into the access panel by the device, the panel flashed green and Sherlock slipped inside and headed into the panel marked IRIDIUM and removed the cylinder containing the grey metal. As he removed it the light inside the drawer turned off, he tucked the tube under his arm and left, he glanced a look at the security camera giving a sly smile (Loki must have been enjoying himself wherever he was).

He headed back outside and followed Barton back to the jet.

"Did it work?"

"Yeah Loki's being taken to their carrier, we'll trace him to its location."

* * *

John and Fury had taken a jet to a large aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean; he'd been given a simple pair of jeans, a shirt and a SHEILD jacket to wear while his favourite jumper was utterly ruined.

"Sir." He exited the jet on deck to find an agent waiting for them.

"Ah, Coulson. This is Doctor John Watson, Doctor this is Agent Phil Coulson. Is he here?"

"No I was just leaving to pick him up."

"Ok."

Coulson left and John followed fury to a door leading down a flight of stairs into a control room bigger than two 221b's stuck together. The entire front of the room was glass, viewing nothing but the top 100ft of the ocean, the occasional brave fish swam by but otherwise the water was empty.

"Wow."

Fury laughed lightly but said nothing. He had walked to the centre of the room where the four screens surrounded an area that viewed all the workers below.

"Hill, would you mind getting Doctor Watson here an access pass, level 2 should be fine for the moment." The woman called Hill nodded and left to talk to another worker in an equally tight blue suit.

"We'll give you access to most of the information, you'll understand we don't trust you to know everything yet." Fury stated as Hill passed him his newly printed pass card "This'll give you access to most places on the ship, including your quarters and the kitchen but nothing too secret."

"I understand sir." Sherlock would hate this but being in the army he knew not to argue with the director when he was so clearly outranked.

"Agent Romanoff will show you around." said Fury as he nodded his head at an agent behind John. He turned to see a stunning red haired woman in a leather jacket, dark jeans and a red t-shirt, she smiled as he realised he had been staring open mouthed at her, he snapped out of his gawping moment and walked over to her.

"Doctor John Watson, formerly captain of the fifth Northumberland fusiliers" He said formally holding out a hand that she shook happily

"Good save Doctor." She grinned.

John smiled at the ground as he followed her out of the control room.

* * *

A/N -Typical John.


	6. Chapter 6 - Where John flies

John had a small exploration around the carrier and found his access card didn't get him into nearly as many places as he would have liked, he read all the files he was allowed to (mostly things about Loki and the extraordinary people he would meet this evening). He wandered back outside and over to the edge of the ship, he held his hands behind his back and looked out over the ocean. He closed his eyes and listened to the jet engines and talking, he must have been like that for several minutes before two men came to stand next to him, he looked up to see two of the men he had read about earlier, Captain America and the Hulk (probably better to call them Captain Rogers and Dr Banner).

Agent Romanoff walked up and introduced them, both men shook his hand.

"So what brings you aboard, Doctor Watson?" asked Banner.

John rubbed the back of his neck "Well, basically my friend and I snuck into a SHEILD base using his brother's security clearance, he got possessed by a Norse God from outer space and I'm here to get him back. In a nutshell, the craziest two days of my life so far, it even tops Afghanistan."

"You were in Afghanistan?" Said Rogers understandingly, John nodded

"I understand a portion of what you went through captain." Rogers gave a sad smile in return.

"Gentlemen you might want to step inside in a minuet, it's going to get a little hard to breathe." Romanoff said, coming back over to them.

"Is this a submarine?" John asked as they peered over the edge of the craft.

"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurised container?" said Banner sarcastically.

At that moment the water in front of them started to swirl, out from under them came a huge propeller, the four combined were so strong the ship lifted straight out of the water, they moved swiftly inside after Agent Romanoff.

Romanoff lead them down the stairs to the control room that had been in before, but instead of water behind the glass all he could see was bright white clouds. Fury stood at his monitors, Hill was saying that they were at level.

"Good, let's vanish"

"Engage retro reflection panels."

And with that John could see on the screens that the entire ship had been set to reflect the sky above them, to anyone below, they would see nothing but open sky and clouds.

Captain Rogers looked around in awe.

"Gentlemen" Said fury turning from the screens to face them, John saw Rogers give Fury a ten dollar note. Fury approached John and Banner.

"Doctor, thank you for coming." He held out a hand that Banner shook with only a moment of hesitation.

"Thank you for asking nicely." He said looking at the ground "So um… how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Fury replied calmly.

"Where are you with that?"

"We're sweeping every accessible wireless camera on the planet, every cell phone, laptop, if it's connected to a satellite, its eyes and ears for us." Coulson chimed in.

"That's over 6 billion images to sort through! We're still not going to find them in time!" said John anxiously.

"You need to narrow your field, how many spectrometers do you have access to?" asked Dr Banner.

"How many are there?" replied Fury.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays, I'll write out an algorithm, basic cluster recognition, at least you can rule out a few places."

"Brilliant." The all too familiar words slipped out of John's mouth. Banner gave a gratifying smile and looked back to Fury.

"Do you have somewhere I could work?"

Agent Romanoff led Banner off to his Lab, leaving Fury, Rogers and John in the control room.

Coulson had cornered Rogers and was asking him to sign his trading cards when an alarm at one of the desks went off.

"We've got a hit sir, 67% match, no wait cross match 79%." They all walked over to the monitors "Location Stuttgart, Germany, 28 konigstrasse."

"He's not exactly hiding…" commented John.

"Captain you're up." Rogers turned to fury with a serious expression and nodded.

John was a little disappointed that he wasn't allowed to go (because Sherlock would probably be there too), but the other part of him was thankful he didn't have to face Loki again.

Due to the six hour time difference, by the time Rogers got to Germany it was already dark, he got there just in time to save a man's life. Loki was in his full warrior gear, two curved horns came from his golden helmet, his armour was also gold, and his sceptre was longer and had another blade on it.

"Bring him in Rogers."

"_Yes Sir" _

"Romanoff?"

"_In position sir."_

"Good."

John moved from Fury's screen to one of the lower ones that had found Loki earlier.

"Do a search for Holmes and Barton around the restricted areas." The man at the computer nodded and started the search.

"You think they're there too?" asked fury.

"Loki's creating a distraction; I'm just checking my instincts." John said, turning back to the computer as it beeped.

"Sir, a jet just left the back parking lot, there are men down, and it looks like they broke into a storage area at the back." said the man turning to John and Fury.

"Run the footage back, please." asked John.

"_We have Loki sir, and Stark is with us." _Romanoff said over the coms.

"Saying anything?"

"_Not a word."_

"Just get him here."

John sat down at an empty computer desk after asking for the CCTV footage to be sent to him. He watched for about a minute before anything happened, the two views that were available gave him a good view of the building Barton and Sherlock were now on top of. He could see the slight glow of their eyes, what unnerved him further was when Sherlock started shooting the guards too, he knew Sherlock was a good shot but to see him shooting innocents was hard, he had to remind himself that it was Loki controlling him. They exited the roof top and moved over to the storage area, he could see Sherlock clearer now, he was wearing a black coat, could have been leather, nothing like his old coat or director Fury's, it was short and tight over a black shirt and trousers. His black gloved hands placed a tripod thing over the retinal scanner and seemed to be waiting for something.

More Guards came around the corner; Sherlock shot them without mercy. Barton used Sherlock's cover fire to shoot the last of them, they got access to the storage area, and Sherlock slipped inside, and the camera view switched to the one in the building. He went to the draw marked IRIDIUM and removed a large cylinder from the drawer, tucking it under his arm he made to leave, but then he looked up to the camera, directly at John and smiled.

But that wasn't a Sherlock smile, that was all Loki, and it shook John to his core.

A/N – That's it for today! About a third of the way through (40mins of movie) I'm having too much fun to stop. Let me know if there are any elements you love/hate and if you want to see anything else x


	7. Chapter 7- Sherlock fights back

Hey guys thanks so much for all the reviews and follows I appreciate it. Ok this chapter its only 400 odd words but I thought it was quite cool so I gave it its own chapter.

* * *

Loki was in a flying contraption with four idiot humans, the metal man who called him a reindeer (whatever the hell that is?) the Soldier, the woman with the red ledger and another man (that he knew nothing about and honestly didn't care.) letting himself get caught was so easy it was dull, he would have continued the battle a little, blown more cars up, killed a few people, the usual. But the metal man had come in and he wasn't overly keen to loose limbs (even though he may be immortal). And now he was just sitting and waiting DULL. Then an idea occurred to him.

"_Shheerrrrlooooooock…."_

"_Ohhh Sheeerrrlooocckk, I'm baaacck insiiide youuur heeeaaad"_

"_Annddd iii cann see yoouuu rolliiinnggg yoouurrr eyyyeess tooo!" _

Sherlock woke from the ten minute nap Barton had forced him to have (he hadn't slept since 221b over two days ago now) by that annoying voice in his head.

"_Shheerrrrlooooooock…." _Loki's voice sounded strange and slow like he was speaking under water. Must be a connection problem, maybe he's too far away. Interesting worth an investigation.

"_Ohhh Sheeerrrlooocckk, I'm baaacck insiiide youuur heeeaaad" Sherlock rolled his eyes, Loki loved the dramatics._

"_Annddd iii cann see yoouuu rolliiinnggg yoouurrr eyyyeess tooo!" _

"Loki you woke me from a perfectly interesting dream about that eyeball I left in the fridge back at my flat, I was experimenting with…"

_"Shhherrloocckk thaaattss quiiittteee reeevvoollttinggg."_

"No its not. It's interesting actually." He thought about the eyeball very specifically, he heard Loki wince when he ran through all the messiest experiments in his mind.

"Still want to be inside my head?"

"_Accctuallyyy thaaat last oonee loooookkkeddd quiittee inttereesstiinggg…" _Sherlock ran through it one more time just to annoy him.

"_Hoowwss thhee preepperraatitioonn ggooinngg?" _said Loki, trying to ignore the image of Sherlock harpooning a dead pig.

"Dull."

"_I knoowwow thhhhe feeeeeliiin, yoouurrr peeeet isssnntt herrreee byy theee waayyyy,,. Theeyyy''veee proobbaabblylyy kiliilleedd him foorr knoowwing tooo mucchhh byyy knoowww."_

_No they wouldn't do that. would they? They couldn't just kill John, he would not let them._

"_I'llll aasskkkk shall iiiii?"_

"_Yeeaaaahh, looks liiikkee theeeyy killed hiimm."_

Loki smirked, he knew Sherlock felt for his pet, just enough for him to have a moment of weakness, of sentimentality so he could take over, all this fighting was irritating.

"Well, be prepared to be irritated out of your tiny mind prick."

"_Whaaatttt? Nooo stooopppp! Youuu cannn''tt!"_

…


	8. Chapter 8 - A meeting and a phonecall

A/N-Hehehe I've written 8 and 9 but I wasn't going to post either tonight but I couldn't resist I'M SO CHANGEABLE !

* * *

John felt mentally and physically exhausted, he grabbed a ten minuet nap on the computer desk he was at (Not that he had a choice, he had just dosed off). He woke up to find a pillow underneath his head, he lifted his head and looked at it in a sleepy confusion, he rolled back on the computer chair and stood up gently.

"Doctor Watson?" It was agent Coulson, "Yeah I know how you feel." He said looking at John's still sleepy face.

"What did I miss?"

"Oh nothing much, Thor has turned up and they're just putting Loki into the Hulks room." He elaborated when he saw Johns confused expression, "It's in the detention centre, it was designed to hold Dr Banner when… I mean if he changed, doubles up nicely as a cell."

"No, looks like I missed very little." John laughed as Coulson lead him up to top level of the control room where a conference table had been set up. He sat down at the far right end of the table, facing the main door, Doctor Banner entered moments later. John stood up to shake his hand.

"How's the search going?" Banner returned the handshake, John sat back down but Banner chose to stand on the longest edge of the table.

"Well they just brought Loki in so I'm going to use his sceptre to get a more accurate gamma signature."

"So they think the Tesseract and the sceptre use the same energy, the Tesseract helped make the sceptre perhaps?"

"Yeah something like that, it'll still take a few more hours until we're even close, any news from your friend?"

"He helped steal that Iridium stuff, I watched the footage. It was strange seeing him, but without seeing any of the real Sherlock, does that make sense?"

"Complete sense."

Just then Captain Rogers walked in with Thor, he hated to admit his childish feeling but they did look pretty cool, Rogers was in full Captain America gear while Thor seemed to be wearing an amazing set of amour. He stood and met them at the end of the table shook Rogers's hand.

"That was impressive captain; it was an honour seeing you in action." Rogers gave him a warm smile.

"Thank you, maybe we should go a few rounds in the gym."

"I'm not sure I'd stand a chance but sure" Rogers clapped John on the back and went to talk to banner.

"Doctor John Watson" He said, holding out a hand towards Thor. He stared at it for a moment before shaking it enthusiastically nearly crushing his hand, John hid the pain well and smiled.

"So you are a physician, but clearly not in this land, your voice has similar elements to my own."

"I'm British, not quite Asgardian, but I'd say we're up there with the Americans." Thor laughed and clapped a huge hand to John's back. They walked over to the table and sat down.

"You are also a soldier?" Thor asked.

"I was yes; I fought in Afghanistan about a year and a half ago now." He gave a sad smile.

"I myself have been in many battles; I know the hardships it can bring." Thor smiled seriously in return.

Agent Romanoff came in and tapped the desk, which brought up five screens in front of each of them, on the screens was Loki's cell, Loki stood directly in the middle looking out, they heard Fury's voice come from his left.

"_In case it's unclear, you try to escape? You so much as scratch that glass," _Beneath the cell opens up a huge hole in the ship, allowing the wind from outside to bellow through the room. Loki walked over to the edge and peered down.

"_30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap, you get how that works? Ant…Boot."_

John let out a small chuckle as fury reverses Loki's own words from two days ago.

"_It is an impressive cage, not built I think for me."_

"_Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury replied._

"_Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast makes play he's still a man."_ Loki turns towards the camera; Banner sighed but chose not to comment.

"_How desperate are you? To call on such lost creatures to defend you!"_

"_How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill cos it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."_

"_Oohh, its burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power, and for what?" _Loki looks back at the camera _"A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is."_

"_Well, let me know if "real power" wants a magazine or something." _Loki turns and watches fury leave, then looks back at the camera before the screens on the desk fade out.

"He really grows on you doesn't he." Banner commented sarcastically.

"Loki's going to drag this out, so… Thor what's his play?" Rogers asked seriously.

"He has an army" Thor replied, now pacing "Called the Chitauri, they are not of Asgard or any world known. He means lead them against your people, they will win him the earth."

"An army from outer space." Rogers said sceptically.

"That's why he came for the Tesseract, he's building another portal." Said John they each looked at him "He must have needed the Iridium to help make it."

"That's what he needs Eric Selvig for." Said Banner.

"Selvig?" Thor asked in concern.

"He's an astrophysicist." replied Banner.

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some sort of spell," added Romanoff "along with two of ours." She shot John a nervous look.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here!" said Rogers.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki, that guys brain is a bag of cats, you can smell crazy on him." Banner remarked.

"Have care how you speak, Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother"

"He killed 80 people in two days." Said Romanoff.

"He's adopted." Corrected Thor.

"I think it's about the mechanics, the Iridium, what does he need the Iridium for?" Banner queried

"It's a stabilising agent," said Stark as he entered the room with Coulson, "means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHEILD."

He walked past Thor giving his Bicep a slap "No hard feelings point break, you've got a mean swing."

"It also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. That man is playing Galaga thought we wouldn't notice… but we did." John looked over to a man now looking very sheepish. Stark continued,

"The rest of the raw materials agent Barton and Holmes can get their hand on pretty easily. The only other thing he needs is a power source, something of high energy density." John noticed Stark stick something under one of Fury's monitors but chose not to say anything.

"Who is this Holmes?" asks Thor, John was about to answer when Stark spoke first.

"English sociopath genius detective."

John laughed "Yeah that about sums him up, I think Loki may have taken him just to shut him up." Stark smirked at that.

"He's also Doctor Watson's very good friend, and I'm sure he'd appreciate it if we kept him alive."

RING RING …RING RING…

Silence fell as John pulled out his mobile "It's Sherlock. Can you trace this?" Stark nodded and started a trace on his very high tech cell phone.

"Sherlock?"

"_John, are you ok?" He sounded very urgent._

"Yeah yeah I'm ok, I'm safe where the hell are you?"

He looked up and saw everyone staring at him; they looked desperate to know what was being said so he put his phone on speaker.

"_I'm fighting Loki's control for now so there is no time to waste, Loki got captured on purpose, and he's planning to rip your ship apart from the inside you have to get out of there now!"_

"But how, Sherlock he's locked in a cell?"

"_Urgh just think John! You're not an idiot!"_ a groan of pain echoed from the phone.

"Sherlock?!"

"_Cognitive recalibration John._" they heard a punch and a scuffle.

"Sherlock?" he waited for a reply but only heard a loud crunch as the phone was obviously crushed under someone's foot.

"Damn it." John looked at Stark

"I got a weak signal but they seem to be moving really fast so I couldn't get an accurate location, sorry."

John simultaneously pinched the bridge of his nose while running his fingers through his hair.

"Impressive though, fighting Loki's spell." Rogers commented, Thor nodded in agreement.

"I agree, Loki has always been able to manipulate people, with his new powers I would have thought it would be more impossible now than ever."

"That's Sherlock."


	9. Chapter 9- Where John gets a bit badass

A/N- Hey I had a request on chapter 6 that there should be a little more interaction between characters so I thought I'd slip this in so they get to know each other a bit more.

* * *

Now was the waiting, in hindsight it hadn't been that long but it felt like an age at the time, there was a brief argument between himself, Banner, Rogers and Romanoff whereby they had tried to convince him to leave the ship like Sherlock had warned, but he had refused point blank.

John was now in the small gym; he'd borrowed some SHEILD training gear, and was pummelling the living daylights out of a punching bag.

"You should probably get some rest John." Said Rogers calmly as he walked into the gym.

John stopped punching the bag and leant his forehead against it instead.

"Too much to think about Captain."

"Call me Steve, it's a heck of a lot less formal."

"Sorry." He shot Rogers a weak smile.

"C'mon then you said you'd have a go." Rogers was holding his arms up in a boxing pose while bouncing slightly on his feet, "Don't worry I won't hurt you."

John turned away from the bag and looked up to the CCTV camera on the roof.

"If Sherlock ever finds the footage of me being beaten, I'll never hear the end of it." He said putting up his fists too.

"Better win then!" Rogers aimed a punch directly at his face which John dodged easily.

"I get the feeling it won't be that easy," he said while dodging a left hook and blocking an uppercut. John dropped his back hand to make out a heavy hook was coming then used the distraction to land a blow on Rogers shoulder. He made the mistake of celebrating the hit in his mind, and in return got a fist in his stomach. He could tell that was a light punch-for a super soldier- but it still felt like a rock had been thrown at his guts.

"Sorry." Steve said apologetically, John put his hands on his knees.

"I see why they call you a super soldier!" John laughed straightening up he pressed gently at the area that hurt most and concluded nothing was broken, there would definitely be a bruise though. Steve still looked concerned so he moved over and punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"C'mon I need a drink."

"I second that!" Steve said happily, he clapped him on the back as they left the gym.

Steve lead him to a kitchen that seemed to be used by everyone, it was an utter mess!

"Yeah I know." He sniggered. "Coffee?"

"I suppose it's too much to ask for a decent British cup of tea?"

"Probably yeah."

John searched the cupboards for a bit before giving up, "Coffee it is then, it might wake me up anyway."

Once the coffee was made, John brewed in his thoughts for a minute, just staring at his mug.

"If Sherlock can fight Loki's spell why can't Barton?" John's head snapped up he hadn't even heard Romanoff come in, make herself coffee or sit down next to him.

"Stark said he was a genius?" said Steve shrugging.

"He is, but I think it's partly because he was prepared –sort of- for what was going to happen. He deduced things about Loki and made him angry; he winked at me just before he was taken over, I think he meant for Loki to take him." John mused.

"But why would he do that?" Romanoff asked incredulously.

"Because he's an idiot." They all laughed before silence fell once again.

A pause.

"Barton'll be ok, Sherlock won't hurt him, they'll both get out of this ok?" she smiled a thank you.

"I'm going to go take a walk." He left his half-drunk coffee on the table and found himself wandering over to the labs he'd tried to get in earlier. Banner saw him coming and opened the door for him.

"Hey English." Said Stark playfully giving John a wave without looking up from his work.

"How's it going in the genius corner?" John replied Stark laughed but Banner just smiled modestly.

"Yeah its ok, I'm just running my programs and he's running his." Banner gestured over to stark and rolled his eyes.

"I'm guessing your program is something to do with that bug you stuck under Fury's computer," Stark looked up quickly at John "Don't worry I don't think anyone else noticed, but still, hacking into SHEILD?" John raised his eyebrows in mock disapproval.

Stark slapped his own hand lightly "Naughty Tony, I'll go sit on the naughty step shall I?" he laughed and went back to his computer.

John laughed and then walked over to Loki's sceptre that lay on a stand at the edge of the room by the windows. The moments when he'd seen that weapon in action sped across his vision and a flash of anger over John and he found himself storming out of the room.

"John?" Banner called after him be he took no notice.

His legs took him directly where he wanted to go.

"Where is Sherlock you bastard?" It wasn't so much a question as an insult he flung at the Norse God who calmly observed him.

"I don't know." said Loki nonchalantly.

John slammed his fist against the glass of Loki's cage before moving over the control panel.

"Gods are immortal right? This won't hurt much then…" he flipped up the flap over a red button (he had no clue how to work this thing but BIG RED button was pretty self-explanatory.).

Loki hid his flinch but John saw it.

"Oh sorry, doesn't this factor into your master plan?" he said titling his head to one side in mock concern. A smirk filled Loki's face.

"Well, not really no, but it would save me the trouble of breaking out myself."

"If you could survive the fall that is." He hand was still hovering millimetres above the button.

"Yes there is that, would you take that chance? Set me free?"

John let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, and moved his hand away from the button.

"Good dog."

"Woof woof." John said sarcastically.

"A soldier afraid to kill or a Doctor afraid to heal?"

"I've killed people; I know I'm no better than you in that respect." John said as he walked back to the glass."But I didn't enjoy it, it was sickening. I don't know how you do It." he looked directly into Loki's eyes and saw there was no trace of humanity in them, well he supposed he wasn't human.

"You are all of you beneath me, pathetic humans, and freaks.

"And you're a monster." John's expression hardened.

"Oh no, you brought the monster."

John's brow furrowed in confusion before he looked away from Loki and laughed.

"So that's what he meant. Rip the ship apart from the inside. Got it." he started walking out of the room and waved behind him at Loki.

"Thanks for the heads up!" he called.

John whipped out his mobile phone and called fury (For emergency use only).

"_Doctor_?"

"Loki intends to unleash the hulk, I think he may already be inside his head, we've got to talk to Banner, he's in the lab.

"_Ok_." He hung up the phone

"This is where things get more crazy Watson." He told himself as he ran to the lab.


	10. Chapter 10 - Where things are epic

A/N- Wow longest chapter ever. Wanted to just cram it all in. I hate all those fics that just re-write the whole story but add in different names and give the same lines to different people, so I've been trying tirelessly not to do that, this chapter has some dialogue straight from the movie that I just couldn't avoid so sorry (I did skip some of it). But John gets a bit bossy after so it makes up for it.

Hope you like chapter 10 (there may be mistakes but I'm tired so shush), I was nervous about uploading it but realised I just couldn't leave it :D xx

* * *

"Shut up Holmes."

"Seven"

"What?"

"That's the Seventh time you've told me to shut up in the last hour."

"Because you keep talking!"

Sherlock may have been back under Loki's control (Well mostly, half of it was an act), but that didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun annoying Barton. After phoning John, Barton had been very suspicious, he hadn't caught him warning John, but he had come in just as he was telling John to punch him to get Loki out of his head (But not in as many words of course).

Loki's hold on his mind was lessened considerably after he was captured and Sherlock had taken the opportunity with enthusiasm, too much apparently, Loki caught him at it and after Barton had smashed his phone. The mocking had been annoying but bearable.

"Holmes?"

"Holmes, for goodness sake stop daydreaming and load those grenades"

Sherlock was forced to his feet and moved over to the box of grenades, the invisible strings that held him were unbreakable for now so he had no choice but to do what he was told. He hadn't known that they were going to break Loki out; he'd just assumed they stay With the Tesseract, stupid Sherlock. **God he hated being stuck inside his own head, no space for the both of them!**

_Well I could just kill you, save us both the trouble of listening to you._

He must have thought that last bit pretty loud, he would have to be more careful with his thoughts if Loki was really trying he could probably hear all of them not just the shouting.

It wasn't long before Sherlock and Barton were taking off in the jet, heading straight for where Loki was being held, the closer they got the less control he had over his own mind.

You better not be in there John or I'll probably kill you myself.

He felt a jolt of fear as he realised how true those words might be, Barton opened the back of the jet and Sherlock could see the carrier Loki (and hopefully not John) was in.

Loki's control took over completely just as one of the carriers engines exploded.

* * *

John made it into the lab to find Stark, Banner, Rogers and Fury already there. Tension was extremely high. Roger's seemed to have just brought in a rather large gun and dumped it on the table in front of fury.

"Phase two is SHEILD uses the cube to make weapons; sorry the computer was moving a little slow." John had never seen Rogers this angry; he slipped in the door and stood by him.

"Rogers, we collected everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean…"

"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?" Stark interrupted as he moved a screen around to show them a file marked PHASE TWO clearly showing weapon plans.

"I was wrong Director; the world hasn't changed a bit." said Rogers sadly.

At that moment Thor and Romanoff came in looking concerned.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked Romanoff.

"Do you want to think about removing yourself from this environment doctor?"

Banner gave an ironic laugh "I was in Kolkata, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you Bruce." John added

"And you've been doing what?" he aimed at Romanoff.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"And I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHEILD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction!" John could see Banner was angry and he wasn't too keen on seeing what happened when he got out of control.

Banner looked at Fury accusingly. "Because of him," Fury was pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Thor asked innocently.

"Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learnt that not only are we not alone, but that we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." said Thor defensively.

"But you're not the only people out there are you?" retorted Fury "And, you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like your work with the cube?" asked Rogers.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it. It is a signal to the other worlds that the earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor said angrily.

"A higher form?" said Rogers

"You forced our hand! We had to come with a…"

"A nuclear deterrent" interrupts Stark, "Cos that always calms things right down."

"Remind me how you made your fortune Stark?"

John lost track of everything after that, everyone seemed to be arguing or shouting at everyone else while John just stood there. It wasn't really his fight, he just wanted to get Sherlock back and help save the world if he could but this bickering was getting them nowhere!

"SHUT UP" John shouted suddenly going to stand in the middle of the room "SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!"

There was a stunned silence; John had projected his voice over everyone's using his best 'I'm the captain in charge' voice he used to use in the army.

"Ah ah ah!" John put his hand up and glared at Stark as he tried to say something. He turned around the room slowing, looking at each of them in turn, warning them not to talk. His eyes fell on Banner who had picked up Loki's sceptre and was breathing deeply.

"Doctor Bruce Banner." John said calmly with his hands up in front of him, Banners eyes snapped to him and away from Fury. There was something wild in them that he had never seen before.

"Bruce, put down the sceptre." Banner seemed to snap out of his mood, he sighed and put the sceptre heavily back onto the table.

"Sorry kids you don't get to see my party trick after all." John looked at him cautiously, Banner just nodded confirming he was calm(ish). John turned back to the rest of the room.

"All this fighting is getting us nowhere; everyone just needs to take a breath. This is what Loki wants, to tear us apart from the inside, make everyone fight each other so he doesn't have to. Do Not give him the satisfaction." John was calm, completely in control and confident.

He looked back at each of them; Stark was seething a little but was calm. Rogers nodded at John and was calm immediately, ever the captain. Romanoff just looked worried about Banner. Thor was cross but glad someone had stopped the arguing. And Fury looked in control but still angry at probably everyone, including John who had just told him to shut up on his own ship.

Just then a beeping sound came from Banners computer.

"We got it." Banner walked over to his computer, reading the information on the screen.

"You have located the Tesseract?" asked Thor.

"Oh my God." Said Banner taking off his glasses, John looked at him questioningly.

Seconds later an explosion ripped through the ship underneath them, Banner, John and Romanoff where flung backwards through the glass windows of the room and landed heavily onto a hard metal grate.

John groaned and moved the large piece of iron piping off of his arm and propped himself up on his elbows to get his bearings. Romanoff turned to face him she put her hand to her ear.

"Yeah we're ok…" a groaning sound came from next to him and he saw Banner was on all fours, he looked like he was in pain but John saw no physical injuries.

"…We're ok right?" Romanoff actually sounded worried (well who wouldn't be? Their friend was about to lose control and turn into a giant green rage monster.)

"Bruce you have to fight it, this is what Loki wants!" John urged.

Romanoff beckoned John to move away from Banner who was clearly losing control.

"You're going to be ok, listen to me." Romanoff was trying to calm Banner down; John moved over to her leg which was trapped under a very large pipe, "We're going to be ok, alright? I swear on my life, that you'll get out of this; you will walk away and never have to…

"YOUR LIFE?" Banner shouted his voice had become deep and it echoed through the maintenance chamber they had fallen into. Banner had lost control completely, John could see him growing, turning green before his very eyes. Banner staggered off the grate and away from them, he looked at them one last time as Bruce Banner, it was a look of sorrow and apologies before his transformation completed and he was the Hulk, with nothing but anger in his eyes.

John groaned with the effort and lifted the pipe clean off Romanoff's leg, she got up quickly and John supported her as they moved quickly towards the stairs, the Hulk turned towards them and bellowed a roar like nothing John had ever heard.

They ran. Romanoff lead the way up the stairs, she slipped between the railings and onto the next level, John followed suit (But less gracefully) just before the staircase was ripped viciously from beneath him. He tailed Romanoff under strong pipes and over machinery, not looking back as they heard the Hulk tear his way through them like they were made of dust.

They came to a thin walkway of technology, and ran through it in single file.

Though obviously twice the size of the tunnel, the monster behind them had no trouble running- at an alarming speed- straight through anything that got in his way. Suddenly they were struck by a huge green arm and smashed into a wall, they turned onto their backs to find what used to be their friend looming menacingly over them both, he raised a hand to strike them.

Then he had gone, all that was left was a huge Hulk shapes hole in the wall to their left.

John got up and looked through the gap to see Thor fighting the Hulk; he was probably the only one who stood a chance. He went back to Romanoff who was breathing rapidly and knelt down in front of her.

"You ok?" She nodded

"Yeah, just getting my breath back, you?"

"Yeah fine."

The explosion had to have been what Sherlock had warned him about, maybe Sherlock was near, he had to go find him but he couldn't just leave her…

"Go I'm fine, I just need a minute."

John was wary about leaving her there but he wasn't going to argue, he ran through a –Still intact- door and up a staircase, he knew they planned to get Loki out so the detention centre was a good place to start looking for Sherlock, it took him a shorter time than he'd expected.

"John." John froze. He turned around slowly to see Sherlock standing at the end of the corridor except, it wasn't Sherlock it was Loki's puppet.

He stood framed in the doorway his eyes glowing bright blue in the darkness. A cruel smirk drifted onto his friends face.

* * *

A/N- MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HA. My first very evil cliff-hanger. *GRINS EVILY* Sorry I was going to continue but its nearly 2,000 words! You'll just have to wait…

I don't own Sherlock or Avengers, because it too awesome and I would die.

What will happen next hmmm? (Oh and I'm going on holiday so who knows when you'll find out!)


	11. Chapter 11-BANG

A/N- Oh guys I'm sooooo sorry! I was on holliday for a week then I came to write and upload and it wouldn't let me log onto the website *Screams nooooo very loudly* but all is good now!

This is short I know, but I felt bad about leaving you guys hanging, hope you like it (if you don't I'll re-write it…)

Let's just get in the mood TENSION TENSION TENSION AND LOTS OF IT.

* * *

Sherlock could see John; he had just entered the corridor, not yet facing him.

Loki's control was unwavering in its strength, he could see everything that was happening, feel his body move and hear himself speak, but he had no control over it.

He'd been moved off the jet and into the carrier; his instructions were to find Loki in the detention centre. He'd been working out the probability of bumping into John by chance

Well Loki obviously didn't like to leave things to the lesser mortals of chance.

"John." He heard himself speak. His own voice was calm and controlled but it had an edge that unnerved him.

He saw John stiffen, and slowly turn around to face him. John's eyes were an open book; he looked exhausted, no longer caring about keeping a calm exterior.

Relief, happiness, understanding, anger, sadness, determination.

Sherlock was no expert in emotions but he understood a few of those.

Determination, this was good, it meant John was going to get the stupid god out of his head.

"_Who are you calling stupid, mortal?"_

"_Come to enjoy the show have you Loki?" _

"_No, no, Sherlock, I'm here to create it." _

Sherlock felt a cruel smirk slide onto his own face. His heart skipped.

"_Loki if you hurt him…"_

"_Oh don't worry I won't…" Loki assured, "But you will."_

"_No!"_

He heard a faint chuckle ringing in his mind before his legs were moving.

* * *

John froze.

Not even a knife could cut through the tension that had filled his chest.

Well Sherlock was alive at least, that was a relief!

He was happy just to know that.

He scanned over the thin man, looked like he'd dodged a few bullets on his way here (so SHEILD was fighting already then), no serious injuries. But those eyes, still the brightest unnatural blue.

He understood what he had to do.

But he hated that he had to, he hated Loki.

_Cognitive recalibration_ that's what Sherlock had told him, he had no time to do anything fancy, just punch his smirking face. He'd done it before, after all.

Sherlock was moving towards him now; they'd be toe to toe in less than thirty seconds.

_29_

_28_

_27_

_26_

But what if Sherlock had more powers now? What if he was stronger than John? Hand to hand combat may not be his best option, He needed something to stall him, to stop him just walking over and killing him.

_22_

_21_

_20_

_19_

He drew out his gun.

18

17

He couldn't shoot his best friend! What stupid idea was this? No going back now…

_16_

_15_

But it had worked, it had been roughly fifteen seconds, and Sherlock had stopped less than ten feet away from him.

"You really think a gun could stop this?" Johns hand didn't shake as Sherlock spoke.

"It could stop you." he replied calmly.

Sherlock chuckled "You won't shoot me John."

"Care to put that to the test Loki? Lose your pet monkey genius?" Oh Sherlock was going to kill him, but he was on a roll now.

"Because I think you need him for your little scheme, would your plan still work with just Barton and Selvig?"

Sherlock's eyes were calculating. John could tell Loki was using Sherlock's mind, trying to figure him out.

"Of course." He replied.

"Liar."

"There is always a plan B." Sherlock shrugged. He pulled out his own gun, and pointed it at John.

"You're bluffing." he could tell he was starting to get on Loki's nerves; he wouldn't have long before he would just make Sherlock shoot him.

"And you're wasting my time."

BANG!


	12. Chapter 12- Definitely going to bruise

BANG!

John shot Sherlock's hand before he could react, sending the gun flying clear out of his hand.

_No serious damage, at most two broken fingers_

At lighting fast speed Sherlock had closed the gap between them, knocked the gun out of John's hand, and thrown a punch that sent him staggering.

_Bruised jaw. Temporarily disorientated. Just relieved the guns have gone._

John spun on the spot, just in time to block a blow from Sherlock; he grabbed his arm and used Sherlock's own strength to pull himself into a more stable stance before punching him in the stomach.

_Not even partially winded. No way to beat him, Loki has made him stronger. Ex- Soldier or not, this is magic._

Sherlock deflected John's next two moves before landing his own on Johns ear.

_Hearing, eyesight and brain dazed. Fighting just isn't working. Plan B?_

"Sherlock!" John shouted loudly.

Sherlock stopped the attack; he stood in front of him, just staring. An internal debate seemed to be happening in his head; John could practically hear his mind churning.

"Fight him Sherlock,

"You hate being told what to do,

"Just fight him, I know you can."

Sherlock made no reply, but stood stock still and closed his eyes, brow furrowed.

_Self-diagnosis- hearing returning to normal, bruised jaw, maybe a broken rib. His fingers are bleeding, maybe only one broken, two others fractured by the look of it, not sure about the stomach, he didn't even flinch when I punched him._

A huge rumble shook the ship, bits of piping and ceiling came down from the corridor but Sherlock stayed motionless.

John held onto the wall as the ship settled from the far away explosion, Sherlock wasn't moving fast enough, the fight was still happening in another part of the ship, and he wanted to help.

He looked around the corridor, his eyes settling on a strong steel pipe.

"Sorry, this is definitely going to bruise."

He brought the pipe around and smacked Sherlock in the side of the head, calculating the strength so as to not kill his friend, who was unconscious in a matter of milliseconds.

* * *

Sherlock saw himself moving down the corridor, heading for John, he felt his body tensing ready for the attack, exactly 14.8 seconds had passed and John drew out a gun.

_Oh great, so you'll shoot me, what a stupid idea!_

His legs stopped.

"You really think a gun could stop this?" he heard himself say.

_I don't always sound so arrogant do I?_

"It could stop you." John was calm, the solider Sherlock only saw rarely and only in dire situations.

A slimy chuckle passed his lips "You won't shoot me John."

_Seriously am I always this annoying?_

"Care to put that to the test Loki? Lose your pet monkey genius?"

_John, I am going to kill you!_

He could see John force back a smile- like he knew exactly what Sherlock was thinking- and continued "Because I think you need him for your little scheme, would your plan still work with just Barton and Selvig?"

_Pet monkey?_

Loki was delving around in Sherlock's memories trying to access information about John.

"Of course." he heard himself say.

_I'm the monkey-Genius, thanks very much, integral to the plans I think you'll find. _

"liar."

"There is always a plan B." he felt himself pull out a gun from its holster and point it at John, his mind was racing trying to think of something -anything- that could stop him shooting John.

_For goodness sake, get out of my head, I will NOT shoot John._

"You're bluffing."

_Great idea John, annoy the God in my brain who will make me shoot you (!)_

"And you're wasting my time."

He felt him arm tensing; about to pull the trigger, he saw John's hand do the same.

He fought the movement, concentrating all his thoughts onto his right index finger, not allowing it to move any closer to the trigger.

BANG!

The gun flew out of his hand and he felt a finger break and at least two fracture as the bullet tore through them.

He moved fast across the ten feet that lay between them and knocked the gun clean out of John's hand then landed a powerful punch to John's lower ribcage.

_For crying out loud John, you were in the army; I thought you'd have dealt with that easily!_

John staggered away, and turned just in time to block the blow that was aimed at his head, he grabbed his arm and used Sherlock's retreat to get himself steady and punched him in the stomach.

_That hurt!_

Sherlock made no outward sign of discomfort –which threw John visibly- and blocked an upper cut and a heavy hook before Sherlock saw himself land a hard blow to Johns ear.

_Very disorientated by the looks of it, don't want to kill John, better try harder to fight this._

Sherlock dug through his mind, exploring the parts where Loki's power was, his mind palace was lit with an eerie blue glow.

He ran down corridors and down staircases, he was looking for his central core processor, somewhere in the entrance hall last time he was there. Loki had moved everything, it was chaos in his mind now (It would take hours to sort it all out). He headed to the basement and found where the bulk of Loki's power was hidden.

_Hmm this shouldn't be too hard; I only have to hack my own brain._

He stepped into the basement room towards a huge mass of blue light, it seemed to be some sort of crystal similar to Loki's sceptre (or that's how his mind visualised it).

_Ok smash it._

He looked around the room to find anything to hit it with, the room was empty.

_Harpoon!_

He ran out of the basement and back up to the main corridor, he looked at each door searching for the case where he had harpooned the pig to work out the velocity and resulting mess of a body at the other end. He found it half way down, grabbed the harpoon and ran back to the basement.

He braced himself.

_ONE  
TWO  
THREE…_

Then he saw nothing but black.


	13. Chapter 13- Technically Loki punched you

Sherlock flopped like a damp sock onto the floor, unmoving, eyes closed.

John waited two seconds, before flinging the pipe to one side and kneeling down quickly beside his friend, he checked his pulse (racing, but who could blame it?) and checked over his fingers (One broken, two fractured). No serious injuries.

He relaxed slightly and shifted into a sitting position; ripped a strip of fabric off his shirt and started to bandage up Sherlock's fingers to give them support until there was time to do it properly.

"Urgghh" a muffled noise came from Sherlock, his eyes were still closed but his brow was furrowed.

"Sorry?"

Sherlock rolled into a sitting position using his good hand to support himself; his eyes were darting around the corridor before they fell on John. His gaze softened and he smiled slightly.

"John Watson, in the corridor, with the lead piping?" he chucked lightly as he looked John up and down assessing him.

"Well, it was steel, but I'll let you off this one time." John grinned; relieved his friend was himself again.

"What did I miss?" Sherlock asked groggily.

"Oh not much, the carrier is being blown up left right and centre, Banner Hulked out and is probably tearing the ship apart somewhere and you tried to kill me."

"That sounds about right, you ok?" he asked casually but concern was in his eyes.

"Yeah fine."

"Your ear is bleeding."

"You punched it!"

"Technically Loki punched it while controlling my fist, but I'll let you off this one time."

John chuckled and stood haphazardly, he held out a hand to the sitting Sherlock who accepted and was hauled to his feet, they leant against each other for a second, both tired and dizzy from the mental and physical fighting, then moved off down the hall.

"What now?" asked Sherlock.

"We're right by the detention centre; I'd say we make sure Loki doesn't get out."

"Agreed."

They walked quickly down the corridor and up a small flight of stairs to the room John had left less than an hour ago. The cage had gone leaving the room looking very empty, John scanned the rest of the room, and his eyes fell on a man propped up against the wall.

"AGENT COULSON!" he rushed over to see the man had been stabbed viciously, he placed his hands over the wound and applied pressure to try and stop the bleeding, the wound had caught his heart, he had 5 minutes to live, at most.

"Doctor Watson," He gave a weak smile "did you see Loki?"

"He's gone," Shouted Sherlock, who had wandered over to a large hole in the wall "Looks like he's headed back to the jet, probably there already."

"Sherlock go to the computer thing there and call for help." John pointed at the screen by the wall.

He watched Sherlock move over and heard him press a few buttons before asking Hill to send the medics over for Coulson.

"John." the weak voice of Coulson caught John's attention again "I did my job, just…"

"What?"

"… just stick around to help. I'm not saying you should fight but you're clever and you can help."

"Yeah, of course I will, we both will, I promise." John hardly knew this man but he was holding back tears.

He had just taken a deep breath when Fury ran into the room, pointing a gun at Sherlock.

"Director Fury! It's ok! It's just Sherlock, Loki's gone!" Fury nodded glanced once more at Sherlock and moved swiftly over to Coulson.

"Sorry boss, the God rabbited."

"Just stay awake, eyes on me." Fury commanded, John didn't reduce the pressure on Coulson, just moved to the side so as not to be in the way.

"I'm clocking out here." Coulson sighed.

"Not an option."

"It's ok boss, this was never gunna work, if they didn't have something to…" Coulson let out a breath, his eyelids closing slightly.

John checked his pulse.

John removed his hand from Coulson's chest; he stood quietly and moved over to where Sherlock was still standing by the screen.

He looked back to Fury to see him taking out what looked like trading cards from his coat; he placed them over Coulson's chest. Sherlock shot him a look that asked _Sentiment?_

John shook his head, brow furrowed.

Fury looked at him, but said nothing.

At that moment the medical team rushed in to tend to Coulson, over a minute too late.

As he and Sherlock left the room they heard Fury talking into his earpiece.

"Coulson is down."

* * *

John lead Sherlock to the medical bay, ignoring all protests of _I'm fine._

"Sit down and shut up." Sherlock closed his mouth and sat down on the end of a bed, some doctors came over but John waved them away.

"Give me your hand" Sherlock rolled his eyes and extended his arm, John cleaned, splinted and dressed his fingers "Any other pain? I landed a punch in your stomach but you didn't react so I don't know if it fractured anything.

Sherlock poked at his stomach and ribs, "I remember it hurting, but nothing feels broken, it doesn't hurt as much now."

"What do you actually remember, I mean, what was it like from your point of view?" John asked curiously as he sat next to him on the bed.

"It was odd, detached, I could see and hear everything that was happening but I had no control."

"But you rang me."

"Well, no control until I started fighting it. The further away from Loki I was the more I could fight it. You have no idea what a pompous arrogant prat Loki is! Having him in my head was nearly worse than having to listen to Mycroft!"

"Nearly?"

Sherlock chuckled. "Yes nearly, Mycroft is just too annoying."

"Will you ring him? Tell him you're ok?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because he was worried about you!"

"John, I'm sure he was more worried about us using his pass to break into SHEILD headquarters, than he was of me being possessed by a Norse God."

John didn't reply, the relationship between the Holmes brothers wasn't something he'd ever understand.

There was a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Thank you." He said it quietly enough for John to hear and no one else.

* * *

A/N- TADAAAAAAA! Hope you liked the last few chapters sorry they took me forever to get around to! Uni deadlines this week so maybe chapters maybe no chapters…

Reviews are so very welcome or it'll be ME in the review box with the lead piping… :P xxx


	14. Chapter 14- Suits?

Calm after the storm.

The control room was filled with a sad eerie tension.

Banner had jumped off the ship chasing a jet into mid-air; no one knew where he had landed.

Loki had trapped Thor in his cell and no one knew whether he had survived the 50,000 ft. plummet to the earth.

On the plus side, Romanoff had hit Barton hard enough to get him back on their side and he was recovering in his quarters.

Stark, Rogers and John were sitting around the large table, Sherlock sat on his feet knees brought up to his chin, he hadn't moved for half an hour.

Fury stood with his back to them facing out the large windows.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket…" he threw the blood stained Captain America trading cards on the glass table in front of Rogers, "I guess he never did get you to sign them."

John shot Fury a look but didn't say anything.

"We're dead in the air, our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor… I've got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye, maybe I had that coming?

He sighed and started walking around the table.

"Yes... we were going to build an arsenal using the Tesseract; I never put all my chips on that number though, cos I was playing something even riskier.

"There was an idea- Stark knows this- called the Avengers initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could. Phil Coulson died, still believing in that idea, in heroes."

Suddenly Stark stood, thunder plain on his face, and left the room.

"Well…it's an old fashioned notion."

Sherlock opened one eye and took in the room around him, the strain was tangible.

He stood from his perch and moved to sit next to John.

"As you know I'm no expert, but Stark is clearly angry, he may do something stupid if left to his own devices."

He looked at Rogers, who nodded and moved to follow Stark out of the room.

Sherlock glanced over to Fury who was talking to Hill on the lower deck then turned back to John.

"Loki plans to use Stark towers as the energy boost for the portal device."

"A warm light for all mankind to share", that's what Loki said when he was first brought in." John exclaimed, "He meant Stark's Arc reactor!"

"Quite. Typical for Loki to give you a clue that no one notices."

"We should tell Stark!"

"I'm sure he'll work it out once his stopped letting his emotions rule his head. But perhaps we should tell Romanoff, Barton doesn't know either."

"Why did Loki tell you and not Barton?"

"He didn't tell me or Barton, we didn't need to know, I worked it out just now."

"Clever."

"I'm not one to boast."

John grinned mockingly and led the way out of the room.

They found Romanoff and Barton in a room in the personnel quarters.

Seeing that Sherlock was just going to barge in he quickly drew in front and blocked the door, and knocked twice.

"Come in," Romanoff answered, she and Barton were sitting on a low hard bed, "John! And this must be Sherlock." she nodded in greeting and Sherlock returned it.

"How's your head Barton?" There was a subtle element of mocking in his voice; Barton clearly hadn't recovered as quickly as Sherlock had.

"Fine." He replied slightly defensively "I see your friend didn't shoot you Holmes, such a shame."

"If it makes you feel any better I did shoot his fingers and hit him around the head with a pipe?" John replied before Sherlock could reply with a snarky comment.

"Yeah it does actually." John, Barton and Romanoff chuckled at Sherlock's scowl.

"Any news John? I heard about Coulson but nothing since." Romanoff asked seriously.

"All communications are down on the ship, Loki's long gone, Banners gone and so has Thor. But we think we know where Loki is headed."

"To where? Stark said he needed a large energy source, a nuclear power station?" She looked to Barton but he just shrugged.

"He's using Starks arc reactor in New York." Sherlock stated.

"Yeah that makes sense. When do we leave?"

"When Stark works it out, this should be about now." Sherlock replied.

At that moment they heard running footsteps and saw Rogers coming up the corridor towards them.

"Time to suit up." He exchanged a glance with Romanoff, who nodded confidently. "Can you fly one of those jets?"

"I can." Said Barton, the two left to get ready while Rogers turned to John and Sherlock.

"You two should stay here, you're civilians."

"As if." They both replied.

Rogers chuckled "Stark though you might say that, come on then." He started back down the corridor, the two men exchanged a grin.

As they ran down the corridor John's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"_Hand me to Sherlock please."_

"Urm ok." John passed the phone to Sherlock who scowled.

"Piss off Mycroft."

"_Good to know you're back to your normal self, brother. I only called to order you not to go to New York. I know from experience that you'll not listen to me, but I hope this time you use logic to realise that if you go in, you will not come out alive."_

Sherlock rolled his eyes and hung up the phone.

"If Mycroft thinks he can stop me, he really is as stupid as I thought he was." He said, passing the phone back to John.

"He's worried, I don't blame him! If Harry knew I was here she'd freak!"

"Just a little detour," Rogers called, he led them into a storage bay, there were a lot of boxes marked STARK INDUSTRIES.

"Couldn't have you going into battle without a suit could we? You wouldn't last thirty seconds, now where did he say they were?" Rogers was riffling through boxes looking for something.

"Suits?"

"Ah got them, Stark said he thought you two would insist on coming so he told me where he kept these." He threw two sacks to them; they exchanged nervous glances and opened them.


	15. Chapter 15- That would be me

"Fantastic!" exclaimed John holding up his suit. Sherlock looked less than impressed.

It was similar to the uniform of the SHEILD officers, a dark navy blue with a black belt at the waist, the belt had spaces for guns and gadgets, tight fit and flexible but probably still strong enough to withstand a bullet or two. It was either extreme luck or excellent planning on Stark's part; it looked like they would fit them both perfectly.

"It's made of Zylon or something, Stark says it's strong and even flame resistant."

Sherlock huffed "Zylon's tensile strength is about 10 times that of steel—a Zylon thread only 1 mm thick can hold an object weighing 450 kg. Zylon has excellent flame resistance, withstanding temperatures up to 650°C, and is more impact-resistant than steel or carbon. Used for fire-fighter and bulletproof vests, though I'm sure Stark has enhanced and improved on it."

"Did he swallow an encyclopaedia recently?" grinned Rogers to John.

"Hardly." Rogers and John exchanges glances at Sherlock's grumbling.

"C'mon get changed, we're on a time limit here, you can both shoot yes?

"Yes, both very well." answered Sherlock. John beamed at the rather back handed complement.

"Glad to hear it, I'll make a decision of tactics for you two once we get to New York. Meet you at the Jet in two."

Romanoff wolf whistled as John and Sherlock entered the jet they had "borrowed".

"Looking good boys, ready?" Romanoff and Barton were in the front pilot seats while John, Sherlock and Rogers strapped themselves into the back seats, they all nodded.

Barton flew with the precision of Red Arrows, they roared through the skies covering the distance in less than 7 minutes.

"So Stark went ahead to see what was happening at Stark Tower, Loki's probably there but we'll be right behind him." Rogers explained handing Sherlock and John a couple of guns each (also Starks creation that apparently shot a huge blue bolt of energy.)

"I just wish we could hear what was happening."

Sherlock unbuckled himself and moved over to the front of the jet, his fingers moved rapidly over the keys and a moment or two later…

"_Then skip the spinning rims we're on the clock!" Stark's voice rang loudly through the jet._

"_Got it." smiled Sherlock._

"You hacked his suit?" Romanoff asked.

"Of course. Looks like he's about to take it off though, I'll have to hack into his audio recordings in the tower." Sherlock started to type again but then Jarvis's voice spoke.

"_Giving you access to live audio Mr, Holmes, I wouldn't recommend attempting to hack it."_

"Thank you Jarvis." Sherlock replied courteously, and returned to his seat.

"Who's Jarvis? And how did you hack his suit?" John asked in admiration.

"Stark's AI, and it was easy really, I've hacked into enough to know." Sherlock stated modestly.

"Ai? Rogers asked in confusion.

"Artificial intelligence, in a nutshell, a talking computer." Sherlock explained, he was starting to enjoy himself.

"_Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity!"_ Loki's voice remarked sarcastically over the jet speakers.

"_No actually I was planning to threaten you." Stark replied._

"_Should have left you're armour on for that." Loki chucked._

"_Yeah. Its seen a bit of mileage and you got the um, glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" Rogers rolled his eyes._

"_Ha, stalling me won't change anything…"_

"…_No threatening, no drink? You're sure?"_

"_The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What do I have to fear?"_ Loki sounded calm but there was an edge of annoyance to his remark.

"_The Avengers,"_ a pause "_It's what we call ourselves, sort'a like a team_." There was a clink on glass as stark seemed to be pouring himself a drink. _"Earths mightiest heroes' kind of thing."_

"_Yes, I've met them." _Replied Loki mockingly.

"_Takes us a while to get any traction I'll give you that one, but… let's do I head count here, your brother the demi god, a super soldier and living legend – who kind of lives up to the legend- a genius detective, a British soldier – who's also darn clever- a man with breath-taking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins, and you –big fella- have managed to piss off every single one of them."_

"_That was the plan." Loki smirked._

"_Not a great plan. When they come – and they will- they'll come for you…"_

"…_I have an army…"_

"…_We have a HULK."_

"_Oh I thought the beast had wondered off…"_

"_You're missing the point! There is no throne; there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Cos if we can't protect the earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."_

There was a pause and all they could here was slow footsteps.

"How long?" Rogers asked Barton urgently.

"Less than a minute." Barton confirmed.

_"How will your friends have time to fight me when they're so busy fighting you…" _

"He's going to take Stark!" John exclaimed.

There was a clink on metal, then nothing, then another more urgent clink.

"_This usually works…" they heard Loki say._

"_Well performance issues… not uncommon, one out of five!" _there was a grunt as Stark was apparently thrown on to a hard floor.

"_Jarvis… anytime now!"_ grunted Stark.

"_Deploy."_

"_DEPLOY!"_

There was a sound of smashing glass and a WHHOOOOAAAAA from Stark that grew fainter.

"I think he's thrown him out of a window…" commented Sherlock.

"Can we catch him with the jet?" John asked.

"No need, look!"

They had just banked around a corner, Stark tower grew looming into view, they all looked out the front window from their seats to see Stark's Iron man suit flying up from below to face Loki who was framed in a broken window.

"_Oh and there was one other person you pissed off, his name was Phil."_

Suddenly a huge bolt of energy erupted from the tower and burst into the sky; in front of their very eyes they saw hoards of Chitauri fly from the gap in space.

"_Right…Army. Hey who hacked my suit?"_

Sherlock smirked "That would be me Mr Stark."  
"_Ah! Another English, must be Holmes, you know how to make a first impression don't you!_"

"You have no idea!" replied John.

"_Captain. Go for Loki he's at the tower. Actually swing up park I'm gunna lay some of these things out for you."_

The jet swerved and shot furiously at the Chitauri who were chasing Stark up the avenue there were still hundreds more pouring through the portal.

"Let John and I out at the bottom of the tower now." Sherlock told Barton.

"What why?" asked Barton while shooting down more flying aliens.

"So I can disable the device, and stop the Chitauri obviously." He retorted.

"_You can't the shield is impenetrable!" _Stark cut in.

"_Sir, I do believe Mr Holmes intends to hack Selvig's computer and gain control of the device." _countered Jarvis.

"You can do that?" questioned Rogers

"Only one way to find out Captain."

Barton hovered the jet just above the ground and Sherlock and John jumped out of the back, John saluted appropriately to Captain Rogers, who returned the gesture.

"Laterz!" Sherlock shouted over his shoulder as he strode towards the entrance to the Tower.

* * *

A/N- Dont own anything except the awesome-ness of this story (HAHA only kidding) but reviews would be lovley... JAM FOR EVERYONE !

(Jam and scones (Gosh am I English or what))


	16. Chapter 16- Vatican oh never mind

To Jalohalo123 – I will try to write a sequel (if only a short one) x

Shout out to Addict To Fanfics, who writes the best reviews as well as pointing out my idiotic mistakes, THANKS xx

Hope you're all having Sherlock in a tight blue suit fantasies :P

* * *

He hadn't slept for over 27 and a half hours but the adrenaline was rushing through Sherlock's system like it never had before. They reached the top of Stark tower just in time to see Loki roll off the edge of the building away from his brother; and landing skilfully on a flying Chitauri platform.

Sherlock had read about the Loki/Thor relationship in the data files when they had first broken into SHEILD- It felt like so many more than three days ago- and knew they were not exactly on the best of terms.

Thor turned from the edge and looked at them while pulling a small dagger from his side.

"Thor, are you ok?" John asked needlessly, Thor was a god after all; a small blade was not going to stop him.

"Fine," he replied distractedly, turning back to the place where Loki had gone. The expression on his face was anger and heartbreak mixed with a strong amount of determination, "Did I miss anything of importance?"

"No not much, all this…" John waved his hand vaguely at the surrounding chaos "…is self-explanatory, Sherlock's just trying to hack the Tesseract machine."

"There is a shield around the device, it is impenetrable." Thor replied.

"I plan on attacking the computer that controls the device; there'll be a back door in the program I just need to find it." Thor obviously didn't understand, nor did it look like he wanted to.

"Are you in need of protection while you attack this 'back door'?" He asked.

"No." Sherlock said bluntly as he started the ascent to the top of the building where the device was located.

"But thank you." John added politely "I've got his back." John waved his gun, he turned to follow Sherlock but Thor's next words made him stop.

"I am sorry John."

"What for?"

"Loki, he is here for vengeance against me and that makes me responsible for what has come to pass and what damage is yet to come."

"No it's all on Loki. None of this is your fault Thor."

"You are a good man John." And with that Thor nodded at John and flew off into the sky.

"Norse Gods, so dramatic." Sherlock grumbled to himself.

John joined him on the top roof; Sherlock had already moved to the computer and was typing furiously. He spared John a glance and waved one hand to his left –while still typing with this right- John followed his gesture to find Dr Selvig lying unconscious on the floor.

"He's alive, just unconscious. Looks like a nasty bump on the head!" John called over.

"Oh good."

"Good?" John replied incredulously.

"Of course. Barton and I were both released from Loki because of "nasty bumps"" Sherlock made the little quotation marks with his fingers "So it's likely that it will have the same effect on Selvig."

"Oh. Right."

At that moment, a huge roar came from the portal; they both looked up to see a vast creature of flesh and metal, it moved in waves through the gateway, and flew down crushing several floors of a building on its way.

He had never seen anything like it, it was quite extraordinary. The time for awe was soon over though because, from the side of the creature came about thirty Chitauri soldiers, they jumped straight from its body and onto Stark Towers.

"Time to test how good Stark Industries weapons really are." said Sherlock as he spun the black gun around his index finger before gripping it tightly and firing at the oncoming aliens.

John and Sherlock stood back to back- that being the most logical tactic- and fired at the Chitauri that were now coming from all angles.

"Loki must have told them we were trouble." John shouted as a Chitauri attempted to stab him viciously in the gut, John deflected the move by using the butt of the gun in his right hand to smack the creature hard in the head while dodging the blade.

"Naturally," Said Sherlock who had now got the other gun from its holster and was firing both simultaneously "Shame really, it's a little distracting."

"Just a little yeah, Vatican… oh whatever DUCK!" Sherlock ducked quickly and John shot the last Chitauri just as it had climbed triumphantly onto the roof.

"'Vatican… oh whatever DUCK!' Seriously John?" Sherlock asked sceptically as he straightened.

"Sorry!"

Sherlock rolled his eyes and moved back to the computer.

"There will be more coming."

"Ok." John got out his second gun and checked each edge of the building.

"Nothing yet, the guys are keeping them very busy down there." John looked down to the main street and watched as a man on a motorcycle came past the wreckage of mangled cars.

"It's Banner!" he exclaimed.

John looked up from Banner to see Iron man flying around a building closely followed by the huge flying creature they had seen entering the atmosphere minutes before.

"DAMN IT!" Sherlock cried loudly.

"What is it?" John asked in concern, as he walked over to his friend who was now pacing furiously up and down the gravelled roof.

"I've found the way in, it's Loki's sceptre. Selvig must have built in a safety to cut the power source in case something happened."

"So we have to go after Loki? To get the sceptre?"

"No. Loki didn't have it when he flew off. I don't know where it is." Sherlock waved his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter, it's not like he'd just hand it over anyway."

"Of course it matters!" John put his hand to his ear to activate the communicator he'd been given to talk to the others "_Ok, Loki's sceptre is…"_

John found himself unable to finish his sentence was the air was knocked out of him.

* * *

A/N- DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN.

I do enjoy doing that. STAR TREK TOMORROW! I am certain it will be awesome but I fear the extreme fangirling may be the death of me, so if I'm not back in a month you know what happened :D

3 Reviews may keep me alive now I come to think about it….


	17. Chapter 17 - It's not even raining

Chitauri number 238947, they didn't need names, they didn't really need numbers, they were alien soldiers who were designed to fight and conquer or die trying.

Number 238947 was a Captain, he was made first in command of a sub-unit of 120 soldiers just before the portal opened. He had tactical responsibility for operations and had direct instructions from the Chitauri who was in constant contact with the green Asgardian.

"_Short human by the portal device, he has blue suit, short grey hair. Take him to the Asgardian." _The orders came from his commander, transferred directly into his mind. "_Leave the other one alive."_

He flew his unit of 120 Chitauri to the ugly human building at the centre of the city; it reminded him of a Kongamato with its huge beak.

They swooped low over the top of the tower and grabbed their target, there was another human, with dark hair, he was walking up and down the roof again and again with his eyes closed, and he didn't seem to notice.

* * *

Sherlock knew he missed things, but this? Honestly he was a massive idiot! (Occasionally)

One second John was there- probably talking to him he wasn't sure- and then he'd just gone! Sherlock had opened his eyes to find himself alone on the rooftop.

"John?" He couldn't have missed him, it was only a small rooftop but he still felt the need to call out just in case. A quick scout around the edges of the rooftop told him that John didn't fall, jump or climb off the edge. The only logical explanation was that he was taken.

"Looks like I'll have to hitch a lift myself then…" He mused out loud.

He started running and threw himself off the roof.

* * *

John held in a gasp of pain as he was thrown gracelessly onto a cold concrete floor, he slid several feet from the force, and landed with his nose close to a pair of black boots.

"Ah John, how nice to see you again." Loki drawled.

John sighed impatiently; he was strongly reminded of when Mycroft would pick him up out of the blue and bring him to deserted buildings.

He looked up from the floor and stood to face Loki with an iron glare. He was on the ground floor of what used to be a hotel, it looked quite unstable and there was a large Hulk shaped hole in one wall.

"Cut the crap Loki. If you're going to kill me you would have had your little minions do it already so what do you want?" John was calm but his heart was racing.

"Oh I would have had you killed a while ago, but I've been…_persuaded _otherwise."

"Persuaded?" Who could persuade Loki?

"By me…" John looked sharply to his left to see the very last person he'd expected. Of course, _he _could.

"I couldn't very well have you and my brother running loose in this," Mycroft waved his hand at the air"…chaos now could I?"

"Then why didn't you bring Sherlock here too?"

"Getting Sherlock to cooperate involves legwork, I'm sure you'll do a much better job than I."

John wanted to punch his stupid sneering face, however he made do with balling his fists up tight and releasing a careful breath to control the sudden flair of anger.

"And how do you know he's not dead already, do you even care?"

"Of course. He is my brother after all." Mycroft walked casually over to him, swinging his umbrella once in a circle. It's not even raining why does he need an umbrella?

"I know he isn't dead, I have been keeping tabs on the both of you this entire time."

"Nothing new there then."

"Indeed not."

"To business?" Loki interjected, with a very bored looking expression on his face.

"Yes of course." Mycroft turned away from John to look at Loki.

"John and Sherlock for your sceptre. You let us get out of New York in one piece and finish your little game with the Avengers."

Loki's bored smile turned to a sneer that would shake anyone – except Mycroft- when he described his world domineering as a 'Little game'.

"Only as you get out of the city, once I own this world I will kill you without a second thought." Loki remarked calmly.

"Agreed."

John looked at both in alarm; it was Sherlock and Irene Adler all over again, two exotic creatures calmly talking about life and death like they were discussing it over cucumber sandwiches.

"My sceptre."

"It's safe; I will contact you with its whereabouts when we are clear of the city." Loki huffed impatiently but said nothing.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Mycroft spoke over his shoulder as he steered John out of a broken door with his umbrella.

* * *

A/N- I'm sorry but I wrote that as Cumberbatch sandwiches and it was just so darn funny when I realised :D How was it? I hope this was ok, I hate to add drama if it doesn't work. What happened to Sherlock? Did you get as many feels as I when he jumped?

I don't own Sherlock or Avengers (Darn). Give me reviews or I shan't tell you what happens next…

(I've been writing too many villains recently, I think it's rubbing off)


	18. Chapter 18- Hulk tucking you in

Mycroft Holmes was really annoying. An opinion both he and John Watson seemed to share. Loki watched them leave, resisting the urge to just give the command to have them killed on the spot, he took a breath of disgusting dirty human air and exited through the huge hole opposite to the main exit.

He needed his sceptre, it was a useful weapon and it also held the key to unravelling his entire plan, but it meant he had to rely on this Holmes to give it back, which he hated.

Killing him as soon as he knew its location would make him in more of a gaming mood.

* * *

John exited – what used to be- the main entrance of the hotel. They came out onto a main road, there was a sleek black car a few meters up the road, it couldn't get any closer due to a giant space-whale's tail blocking the entire road.

"What about Sherlock?" John asked, but Mycroft had already got his phone out of his pocket and placed it to his ear.

"Where is he?" John could just about hear the reply at the other end of the phone.

"_He's moving towards the street you are in now…um very fast Sir." _John looked around the road looking for the running form of Sherlock Holmes, but he couldn't see him anywhere.

He turned back to Mycroft but then spotted what he was looking for – although not exactly how he'd imagined it- speeding towards him. He dodged Mycroft and ran as fast as his legs could carry him before using a large piece of broken building to propel himself straight up into the air, a strong long fingered hand caught hold of his hand and pulled him onto a flying platform.

"See you Mycroft!" Sherlock shouted gleefully as they sped away from a slightly shocked Mycroft, "You alright?"

"Yeah fine, where did you get that!?" John held onto Sherlock's shoulders tightly as they banked around a tight corner, Loki's sceptre was held in Sherlock's left hand.

"Mycroft tries very hard to keep secrets, but I know him too well. I knew he'd interfere – he always does- I also knew he'd try and get us out of New York and therefore needed leverage against Loki, obvious really."

"Yeah, obvious (!)" Sherlock chuckled but otherwise ignored John's sarcasm.

"So we close the portal now?"

"Yes, but perhaps we should tell the others first, do you have your communicator?"

"No Mycroft took it. Why don't you?"

"I lost it while I was… borrowing… this platform from an angry Chitauri. Well we have to let them know."

"Turn right here, last I saw they were only a few streets from here."

"Fine." They continued speeding through the streets in silence for a moment.

"Sherlock… was Mycroft being strangely sentimental by wanting to save us or do you think he had ulterior motive?"

"Mycroft always has an ulterior motive."

"Which is?"

"Most probably, he wouldn't give Loki the sceptre back and take it back to England for the good of the British government." John couldn't see his face but he could practically hear Sherlock roll his eyes. "Also in having the Sceptre he had leverage against Loki for as long as needed."

"There's Steve!" they both looked down and saw Captain America being forced out of a second story window by an explosion and landing hard on a car. They made to land next to the shattered vehicle John jumped off before they hit the ground, and Rogers accepted the hand John offered as they pulled him free of the wreckage.

"Still alive then?" Steve laughed, he looked exhausted.

"Yeah, you too." John surveyed him a little closer and noticed a piece of jagged metal sticking from Steve's side, Steve went to pull it out but John stopped him, "Here, let me." He pulled out the mental shard gently and dove into the little med pack that was conveniently on his blue suit's belt (Good old Tony).

"How's the computer attacking going?" Steve asked as John took out a plaster – it was blue and seemed to have the same bullet proof capabilities as his suit- and stuck it over the wound after disinfecting it.

"Loki's Sceptre is the key; use the blade on the end to penetrate the shield guarding the device, shifting the Tesseract out of alignment should be enough to close the portal." Sherlock said as he reached them.

"Good, use that platform to get you back up to the tower and close it as soon as you get there." The Captain replied he put his hand to his hand to his ear and told the rest of the Avengers what was happening. He paused; obviously listening to a reply- Sherlock huffed impatiently- "OK, I'll tell them."

He looked at the pair of them "Stark says there is a nuclear missile on its way to blow up New York."

"That's stupid, it wouldn't close the portal, just destroy New York – and us- and leave Loki to rule the world."

"I know, Stark has gone to intercept it, he's going to throw it into the portal. Get to the roof and close it once he's done it. We have less than a minute." With that he ran off to help Thor and Romanoff fighting further down the street.

"Let's go."

"You drive, I'll cover you." As John climbed into the back of the platform he pulled out his gun and shot anything Chitauri he could see.

They got to the tower with only a few minor attacks on their lives, they were unfortunately hit by the tail of one of the large armoured beasts and sent clattering down through the glass of what looked like a bar- Joined seconds later by Loki and The Hulk.

"Enough!" Loki shouted furiously, standing from his ungraceful visit to the marble floor, "You are all of you beneath me! I am a God you dull creature!" John and Sherlock stood up from their places on the floor, "And I will not be bullied by AHHH!"

The Hulk had grabbed him firmly by the ankles and was smashing him violently into the floor, looking incredibly pleased with himself and irritated by Loki he walked away from the god who had now become part of the flooring itself.

Sherlock walked casually over to him and stood over his head "That's ok Loki, you just have a little rest," He waved the Sceptre childishly above him "I think Banner should have tucked you in a bit more but I'm sure he'll compensate later."

All that came from Loki was a high-pitched moan.

* * *

A/N- Sherlock's enjoying himself :D Maybe only two chapters left! I was thinking of doing a sequel if anyone's interested or wants to suggest what could happen? R&R x


	19. Chapter 19 - If he be worthy

If anyone could do it, it would be John.

* * *

Chaos, there was nothing but chaos surrounding them as they climbed to the very top of-what was left- Stark Tower. They were running towards the Tesseract device when many loud screeches haunted their ears and they stopped short.

In a last attempt to stop the inevitable, Loki had sent more than 100 irate Chitauri -who were just as eager to kill them as they were at the start of the battle- to finish them. They climbed feverishly up the walls towards them and dropped out of the sky above them.

"John take the sceptre, I'll cover you." Sherlock ordered shoving the staff into John's hands before retrieving his last gun from his belt.

"Sherlock…"

"Don't argue just do it!" Sherlock snapped fiercely as he began to fire at the oncoming hoard of aliens.

John paused, it was the logical decision- he had lost everything but his med-kit from the meeting with Mycroft and Loki (including both guns) - but the overwhelming urge to protect his friend was making him hesitate. Without warning the sceptre was knocked violently from his grasp, there was a gap in the oncoming force that he could take, he could escape, he noticed it but the thought of leaving his friend didn't even cross his mind. He was thrown hard, straight into the back of Sherlock; they crumpled uncomfortably onto the ground. A Chitauri picked up Sherlock's gun before he could reach for it and aimed it pointedly at them both as they stood cautiously side by side.

They were going to die.

But they hadn't killed them already?

If he could just get Sherlock off the roof give him a head start somehow and keep the surrounding Chitauri distracted (at least until they killed him which wouldn't be long.).

They raised their hands in surrender, they exchanged glances and John could see that Sherlock wouldn't leave, that they would go down fighting if they had to. Sherlock nodded at him, a non-verbal acceptance of the fact.

Just then- John got a strange feeling in his bones, like an instinct - but not one he had ever felt before.

* * *

Thor was with Captain America when he felt it.

A last bout with the Chitauri creatures on this street had nearly beaten them but they had finally succeeded in clearing the entirety of the road. He broke the neck of the last Chitauri with Mjölnir and took a well-deserved deep breath. The hammer in his hand started to vibrate slightly, he took notice of it when the vibrations' strength increased, and he followed the instinct in his gut and opened his hand. The hammer flew with urgency out of his palm just as Iron man sped above their heads carrying the weapon the humans had sent to destroy the city.

* * *

John looked behind them, he knew what was happening – though couldn't quite believe it- and grinned at Sherlock. The Chitauri had started moving slowly towards them, closer by the second.

Sherlock looked at him questioningly; probably worried his sanity had finally cracked.

"Vatican Cameos." Sherlock's eyes widened he looked briefly to where John was just gazing and smiled.

Sherlock ducked to the ground just in time as the ancient hammer flew into Johns still raised hand, he didn't waste a second before using the full might of it to send ten Chitauri flying at once, others were hesitant and backed away while most surged forward to attack. John sent bolts of fatal blue light rebounding back into the crowd again and again. Sherlock took a Chitauri weapon that had been discarded on the ground and joined in.

"Take the sceptre, I'll cover you." John shouted to him.

"But..."

"Don't argue just do it!" John barked while sending the hammer flying towards the Tesseract device creating a path for Sherlock to run down.

There was a WHOOOSH as Iron man soared over their heads, holding the nuclear missile to his back and straight up into the gap in space, disappearing from sight.

Sherlock ran as fast as he could towards the machine and grabbed the sceptre from the ground a few feet away, any Chitauri with ill intentions towards him he either shot himself or were hit by a hammer that came out of nowhere.

He spared a glance to the sky; through the portal he could see a huge explosion as the nuclear bomb hit what must have been a Chitauri spaceship.

Swiftly all the Chitauri soldiers around them collapsed in a heap, unmoving and disconnected.

Carefully at first Sherlock inserted the tip of the sceptre through the – now visible- blue shield that protected the device, before pushing it with all his strength towards the Tesseract. There was a faint _clink_ as the blade made contact and a huge blast as the device stopped and the column of energy vanished. The portal above them began to retract in on itself, getting smaller and smaller.

"Come on Stark!" John whispered- it was both an order and a plea. They both looked up and as the last of the gateway closed a small red and gold figure could be seen falling faster and faster back to earth.


	20. Chapter 20- What looked like a kebab?

A/N- Ok the last chapter wasn't the end end…

* * *

Sherlock felt an odd mixture of relief and disgust to find himself in a café. After all the adrenaline fuelled excitement, sitting with six of the most interesting people he had ever met – eating what looked like a kebab- was both a privilege and an anti-climax.

They had sat there for a full fifteen minutes in silence, Stark had ordered them each a Shwarma meal and they had been sitting there just letting the battle sink in.

"I don't get why I could use the hammer though, I thought only you could use it?" John broke the silence.

"'If he be worthy, can possess the power' that's what the symbol on the side means," Thor explained, "You must have been most loyal to earn the right to wield Mjölnir."

"It's because you stayed to fight instead of escaping." Sherlock chipped in.

"What? There wasn't anywhere to escape?"

"Yes there was, there was a gap that you could have fled through, you're a solider John you would have noticed it even if you chose to delete it after."

"Not everyone can just delete things Sherlock, and even if there was a chance of escape, I couldn't have just left you!"

"I would have been fine."

"You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."

"Probably not, I could have handled it."

"Really?"

"Of course, but you were there so it's not like I needed to."

They looked at each other and chuckled, both of them knew they'd both be dead if it wasn't for the other.

Thor was gazing thoughtfully at his hammer, "It seems Mjölnir, and took it into her own power to save the day."

"We helped!" interjected Stark.

"I'm happy for her to take the credit." Banner said raising his hand wearily.

"And who actually saved the day?" Stark asked.

"Me." Replied Sherlock.

"Hey hey no hey! I stopped a nuke blowing up the city!"

"But I closed the portal."

"Yeah and nearly left me out there with the nuke!"

"I knew you'd make it, by calculating gravitational pull in space and the force of the explosion timed with a rough – but I'm certain accurate- estimate of how far out you flew before your suit cut out, I was positive you would make it back in time before the portal closed."

"Really? And you worked that out in what? Three seconds?"

"Two and a half."

Sherlock and Stark just glared at one another for a minute, reading each other.

"Fine."

"Fine."

John smiled at the pair both trying discreetly trying to get the last word.

Banner coughed to stop what had turned into a staring contest, "So what now?"

"I take Loki back to Asgard as a prisoner of war, where he will be contained." Thor answered

"Yeah, about that," Rogers remarked "I'm still not sure we should have tied him up in the toilets."

"Well he has been a little sh…"

"Sherlock!" John cut off the end of Sherlock's sentence.

"I would have kept him in the tower but JARVIS said he needed to check the system before admitting any guests." Stark said. "Once he's done that we'll keep Loki in the vault and you guys are welcome to stay for as long as you need."

They all nodded in appreciation.

"_All systems fully functioning Sir."_

"Thanks JARVIS. It's all fine at the tower, we'd better get going before people can start getting back on the streets. Someone go get the god from the loo." They all got up to leave, Stark paid (for the café not the meal) and they all walked down the main street together. Loki was in some Asgardian muzzle and handcuffs, Lestrade would love them.

Sherlock and John took their time, walking behind the rest.

John let out a sigh.

"What?"

"No nothing, I'm just really craving tea."

"Yeah me too"

"Feels like I've hardly slept since we left Baker Street."

"I haven't."

"What not even a bit?"

"Well I caught ten minutes but it wasn't exactly restful."

As they walked, more and more people came out onto the streets, some pointed, other shouted thank you at them. They also started taking photos on their phones which made Sherlock drag John into a less crowded street.

"How are your fingers holding up?" John asked a moment later.

"Fine." Sherlock said dismissively, he was going into a 'Deep in thought mood'.

John smiled at him fondly as they walked, he thought of Mycroft and wondered where he was now, if he had got out of the city safely? His thoughts also drifted to Mrs Hudson who was probably wondering how they were. He saw a still standing phone box on the left side of the street and dialled the familiar number with the right area code.

_Ring ring, ring ring._

"_Hello?"_

"_It's John."_

"_Oh hello John dear!"_

"_Hi Mrs Hudson."_

"_How's the case? I do hope Sherlock isn't driving you up the wall too much!"_

"_Not too much no." John laughed lightly._

"_Good, let me know when your nearly home and I'll put the kettle on."_

"_That is music to my ears Mrs Hudson" He heard her giggle on the other side of the line._

"_Ok, be good and be careful, I know what Sherlock is like, always getting you two into trouble!"_

"_You have no idea Mrs Hudson, we'll see you soon."_

"_Goodbye dear."_

"_Bye" _

John hung up the phone and jogged to catch up with Sherlock, who had kept walking.

"How is she?"

"Yeah she's fine, she said to keep you out of trouble." Sherlock broke out of his thoughts to look at John. He wondered how Sherlock knew who he had phoned, but didn't bother asking.

"Better try harder next time then."

They both laughed, and mutually knew how preposterous and impossible the idea of them 'keeping out of trouble' would be.

Stark tower was missing quite a lot of the top few windows, mainly thanks to John, Sherlock and The Hulk, but it was still quite a striking structure. Nothing but the A was left of the sign on the side, it made John chuckle.

"What?"

"Just thinking. Kind of ironic how only the A is left from a fight with the Avengers."

"Maybe he should re-name it."

"What to Avengers Tower? It certainly would be less ostentatious."

"Watson Tower? You did save the world after all."

"Hahaha no thanks! I think it was a team effort. I doubt they'll even want me to write about any of this in my blog."

"Good."

"Good?"

"People think I'm big headed enough without me bragging about how I saved the world."

"Like you care!"

"It would bring me more cases I suppose." Sherlock pondered.

They reached the main doors of the tower roughly the same time as the others.

"Enjoying even more fame Stark?" Sherlock asked.

"What can I say? They love me!" Sherlock rolled his eyes as he followed Stark into the building.

_Welcome back sir, the vault is ready._

"Thanks JARVIS, are most of the guest rooms still intact?"

"_Twelve of the fifteen guest rooms are undamaged."_

"Excellent." He turned back to everyone, "Ok guys, don't break my tower, sleep, explore, don't care. I'm going to meet Pepper at the airport, just ask JARVIS if you need any help."

Thor and Barton followed JARVIS' instructions to put Loki in the Vault.

"Well I could certainly do with a shower and a sleep." said Rogers walking over to them.

"I think we all could, but let me have a look at where that metal stabbed you before you dose off." John ordered, Rogers agreed and lead the way to the lift, where JARVIS told them how to find each of their guest rooms and a medical kit.

"I'm going to call fury, he's probably got communications back up by now, and I'll tell him what happened." Romanoff said as she left the lift first, she looked exhausted.

* * *

John found himself an hour later sitting on the roof of the tower, his feet dangling into thin air. His shower had woken him up considerably and he didn't really feel sleepy at all, Sherlock had gone straight to his room to sort out his mind palace (which would take hours).

He surveyed the wreckage of the city, it occurred to him that he'd never seen it in real life before it was destroyed, it still looked amazing. He had assumed everyone else was asleep or busy until Steve Rogers came and sat next to him on the ledge, he'd treated all the Avengers who had needed it over 30 minutes ago so he wasn't here for medical advice.

"You ok?" asked Rogers looking over the city.

"I would say fine, but I think you'd know I was lying."

Rogers chuckled "I'd be surprised if you were fine, I bet the last week has been a bit crazier than normal for you."

"Not by much, compared to your average day yeah but some days, living in Sherlock Holmes' world can be just as mental."

"Really? I find that hard to imagine."

"Two weeks ago Sherlock and I were on a case in Dartmoor, the client had been seeing this enormous hound since he saw his father being killed when he was seven. I thought it was just an invented memory caused by a childhood trauma. It was just a dog in the end, but a doctor from these secret labs had been developing this hallucinogenic fog and everyone was seeing the dog as this monstrous hound with glowing red eyes. It sounds stupid, but at the time it was terrifying."

"Wow, so everyone thought it was real?"

"Yeah even Sherlock did for a while, he was shaking. He worked it out in the end though."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Nothing compared to your craziest day I'd wager."

"Well being frozen for seventy years beats everything!" they both laughed.

"Maybe life will be boring after this."

"Hope not." Sherlock's voice came from behind them.

"Hey Sherlock," John smiled "How's the mind palace?" Rogers looked at him quizzically but john just shook his head with a smile saying '_I'll explain later'._

"It's been better; still a lot of data to go through but the important things are sorted."

"I'll leave you to it." said Rogers clapping John on the back and leaving the roof, Sherlock took his spot next to John.

They sat there in a comfortable silence for a while, just looking at the city.

"Do you want to go home or stay for a bit?" John asked, looking at his friend.

"Honestly?"

"Of course."

"All I want to do is go home and see Mrs Hudson and solve crimes, complain about you blogging about them constantly, drink tea and play my violin." He paused "That's what the sentimental part of me says," he shook his head at the very thought of him being sentimental, "My head hasn't been this full in years, I'm going to need a while to sort it out." John nodded.

"You're ok though? I mean aliens and gods and super heroes, doesn't usually fit with your norms."

"Not usually no. Everything has a rational explanation, I would have thought this all an elaborate set up or a vivid hallucination but since Loki took over my mind and seeing what I did, there is no way it's not real, might take me a while to get my head around that but the evidence is all there."

Sherlock looked at his friend and then back out over the ruins of New York.

"Do you think anyone will believe we were involved?"

"Not a chance."

* * *

Farewells happened a day or two later, Stark had offered to fly them home in his private jet but Sherlock was rather looking forward to the eleven hour flight.

Loki and Thor had returned home to Asgard, an impressive teleportation in the centre of central park, Banner had agreed to stay in Stark tower to play in Stark's extensive labs, Romanoff and Barton had ran off somewhere before returning SHEILD, Rogers left on his motorcycle a few hours ago to 'Get back into the world'.

"See you English; feel free to come back anytime." Stark shook John's hand happily.

"I'll hold you to that." John smiled; he shook Pepper's hand and gave her a wink before running to catch up with Sherlock who had already started walking up the main road in search of a cab.

* * *

On the flight home, Sherlock had long gone into a trance and talking was out of the question.

"Can I get you drink Mr Watson?"

"Just water please…"

"Mary." The air hostess smiled "Mary Morstan."

John grinned back.

* * *

A/N- The actual end! Poll on possible sequels on my profile :D

THANK YOU FOR READING I LOVE YOU ALL :D


	21. Chapter 21- Possible sequel chapt 1

**The invitation**

John Watson sat at his desk chair; he had taken a few days off work after…that. But now he was determined to live and work normally (_or try_).

John said goodbye to his patient - who looked more worried about him than the tonsillitis he had caught from cheating on his wife with his secretary – and watched as he closed the door.

Maybe three days wasn't enough, his mind was still jerking him back to the sight of Sherlock falling with the tiniest of reminders. He had dealt with the PTSD from Afghanistan by being distracted by his adventures with Sherlock Holmes, now he was the cause of the nightmares. Even in the battle of New York with aliens and gods he had had Sherlock to talk about it with after, rather than going mad inside his own mind.

John sighed quietly and leant his head against his fist. _No time now John, pull yourself together and do your job. _He pressed the intercom to let reception know he was ready for the next patient and rubbed both hands over his face roughly.

"Doctor Watson?" he vaguely noted the American accent but didn't look up, instead opening up a new patient document in the NHS system on his computer. He hated that moment when his patient sat down across from him, only to recognise him from the papers and either gape at him, apologise or tell him about Sherlock being a fraud, because he had to stay calm and professional (and try really hard not to punch him/her in the face).

"Yes hello." He took a deep breath through his nose and glanced up at the patient.

"Looking rough English." John took a double take before staring at the man before him; he shook his head and couldn't hold back a small smile. He chuckled at the ceiling before looking back at the man with dark hair.

"And what seems to be the problem…" he mock- looked at the computer "…Mr Stark?"

"Too many things to count doctor." Tony laughed before becoming serious "How you doing John?"

"I'm fine Tony; you didn't have to fly all this way just to see me." John scolded.

"Who says I flew here just to see you? I might have business in London?"

"You could," John deliberated "But your hair and clothes are creased by your suit, you wouldn't come in that for a business trip because you'd have more to carry even if it's just a change of clothes. You're not planning to stay for long just popped in to see an old friend."

Tony laughed "Ha, you've not gotten any dimmer since we last met."

"I'll take that as a compliment." John smiled weakly.

"I heard what happened, thought you might want some company, thought I'd invite you over to Avengers tower for a bit?"

"Avengers Tower? You got rid of your name off the side?" John raised his eyebrows.

"Pepper said I was being too big headed, but it is my tower so I think I could have gotten away with it."

John smirked, he had missed Stark and all his humours narcissism, he looked down at his desk. Could he just run off to America? He didn't want to feel like he was running away from his grief, even if it would be a very welcome distraction.

"I don't know Tony, I've got Mrs Hudson to keep an eye on, and I still haven't heard anything from Mycroft. Moriarty might even be around somewhere with a group of snipers for all I know." He sighed loudly, Tony looked like he was going to try and convince him so he continued swiftly, "Ok how about I think about it and you go be a tourist for a bit, fly past the people on the London eye and give them something to look at. I'm off in four hours."

"Square deal." Tony got up and shook John's hand as he also rose.

"Don't start a riot before I get off work, you know what it does to the traffic." John smiled as Tony shut the door behind him, he realised where he had heard that phrase before, and sank back into his chair as his leg gave out.

On the second day of knowing Sherlock, he had accused his brother of being able to start a war within half an hour; John had thought it was ludicrous that one man could have that much power. If anyone could- it would be a Holmes.

* * *

Those four hours passed frighteningly quickly, and it was half past five before he knew it. Tony Stark was waiting for him outside the bland surgery in his red and gold suit.

"You're going to get me sacked if you stand around here in that thing."

"Pretty awesome way to get sacked though..." Tony argued, John let a small laugh escape and smiled.

"True."

"So, are you coming?" Stark questioned, "Don't be silly of course you are! I'll send my jet to Heathrow tomorrow at four pm, which should get you there by eight-ish? Ok, good see you tomorrow morning!" John had his mouth open to reply but got as far as "I…" before dust from the surrounding pavement was sent flying as Stark took off.

"Right… ok. Looks like I'm going to America then!" He said to no one in particular. It then dawned on him that at least five people were staring wide eyed at him, shock, awe and one old man who looked a bit cross!

John was sure he heard him mutter "_Bloody tourists" but_ he couldn't be sure.

* * *

Ok hey lovely readers I thought I'd just upload this to see what you think of the possible first chapter to a sequel of "Sherlock- Not The First Avenger (More of a Gatecrasher)". You voted on the poll on my profile for this one more than the others so I thought I'd have a crack at it! I may end up doing a first chapter of each option and letting you decide once you've read a little, how's that sound?

Let me know! SR x


	22. Not a chapter just a notice SEQUEL!

Two new chapters up for the sequel now guys, it's called "Always a Way." I'm waiting for a better title to spring up from the subsequent chapters :D

Happy with the feedback so far and I'd love to hear your thoughts, as always!

Go on my profile to find it, that's probably the quickest way.

Love SR x


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